ZAGREB, February 5, 2019 – The average healthy life expectancy in the European Union in 2016 was 64.2 years for women and 63.5 for men, while in Croatia it was 58.7 years for women and 57.1 for men, show figures released by Eurostat. This represents approximately 77% and 81% of the total life expectancy for women and men.
Life expectancy for women in the EU-28 was, on average, 5.4 years longer than for men in 2016. However, most of these additional years tend to be lived with activity limitations. Men tend to spend a greater proportion of their somewhat shorter lives free from activity limitations.
Across the EU member states, the country with the highest expected number of healthy life years was Sweden – 73.3 years for women and 73 years for men. At the bottom of the ranking is Latvia, with healthy life expectancy being 54.9 years for women and 52.3 years for men.
Eurostat notes that this significant difference can be partly attributed to differences in the criteria some countries use to measure health-related activity limitations.
Countries with an above-average healthy life expectancy mostly have high living standards, but there are exceptions like Bulgaria, which is in the upper part of the ranking, while Switzerland and Luxembourg, countries with the highest living standards, are below the average.
In 20 member-countries healthy life expectancy is higher for women than for men and in seven the situation is reversed.
More news on the health issues in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.
