Healthy Life Years To Go

Healthy life years measure the number of years a person can expect to live in a generally healthy condition. At birth, in 2011, men and women in the EU27 could expect to live to 62 years. At 50 people could expect to live another 18 years and at 65 people in Europe culd expect another 9 healthy years of life.

A healthy condition is defined as the absence of limitations to functioning/disability. It is measured by a self-perceived questionnaire asking for the extent of any limitations lasting for over 6 months and caused by a health problem. The indicator of healthy life years measures the number of years a person can expect to live without any serious health problems. It means the respondenets can carry on their usual activities.

At birth, men and women in Sweden and Malta can expect to live to over 70 years. The lowest numbers of healthy life years were 52 in Slovakia and 54 in Slovenia for both men and women. At 50 both women and men were expected to have more than another 20 years in Sweden, Malta and Denmark, Luxembourg, Ireland and the UK. The lowest was Slovakia with 10 years for both men and women. At 65, highest healthy life years were in Sweden with an additional 15 years for women and 14 for men and the lowest Was Slovakia with 3 and 4 years respectively.