The number of healthy life years at birth in the EU was 63.1 years on average in 2023, 63.3 years for women and 62.8 years for men, according to figures released by Eurostat.
Healthy life years are defined as the number of years a person is expected to live without an activity limitation (disability).
The figures from the EU’s statistics agency show that life expectancy at birth for women in the EU was, on average, 5.3 years longer than that for men (84.0 years compared with 78.7 years).
Healthy life years, that is, life years free from activity limitations, represent 75% and 80% of the total life expectancy for women and men respectively.
On avergae, therefore, men tend to spend a greater proportion of their shorter lives free from activity limitations.
At country level, there were only 9 EU countries where men registered more healthy life years than women.
The highest numbers of healthy life years for men were recorded in Malta (71.7 years), followed by Italy (68.5 years) and Sweden (67.2 years). The lowest ones were found in Latvia (51.2 years), Estonia (56.5 years) and Slovakia (56.8 years).
Malta also recorded the highest number of healthy life years at birth in 2023 for women (71.1 years), ahead of Bulgaria (71.0 years) and Italy (69.6 years).
By contrast, Latvia had the lowest number of healthy life years for women (54.3 years), followed by Denmark (55.4 years) and Finland (55.9 years).
