Some 89.7% of people in Europe aged 16 to 29 consider their health to be either ‘good’ or ‘very good’, new data from Eurostat has revealed.
This percentage has stayed relatively constant in recent years, with only a slight decline recorded since 2021 (91.1%). Slightly more young men (90.4%) report themselves to be in ‘good’ or ‘very good’ health than young women (88.4%).
The proportion of young people that consider themselves to be in good health was substantially higher than the corresponding figure for the overall EU population (across all age cohorts), where just over two thirds (67.9%) described their health as ‘good’ or ‘very good’.
‘A clear link’
‘The data also show a clear link between higher income and better self-perceived health,’ Eurostat noted. ‘In the EU in 2025, 85.6% of young people aged 16-29 living in households with the lowest income (first income quintile) rated their health as good or very good, compared with 93.7% of those in households with the highest income.’
On a country-by-country basis, more than 90% of young people reported good or very good health in 14 EU countries, with Romania leading the way (98.2%), followed by Greece (98.1%) and Croatia (95.9%).
At the other end of the scale, just 74.4% of young people in Sweden were confident about their health levels, followed by the Netherlands (79.8%) and Finland (81.4%).
Eurostat added that it defines self-perceived health as the respondent’s overall assessment of their health. The indicator is subjective and may encompass physical and psychological health as well as symptoms and other aspects of an individual’s condition. Read more here.
