European citizens enjoy around 63.1 years of healthy lives – in other words, free from activity limitations – on average, with 63.3 years for women and 62.8 years for men.
Life expectancy for women in the EU stood at 84 years in 2023, while for men, it stood at 78.7, meaning that women can expect 75% of their lives to be free from activity limitations, while men can expect 80%, the data, from Eurostat found.
Healthy life expectancy
In terms of the EU countries that boast the longest ‘healthy life’ expectancy, Malta comes out on top with 71.4 years, or 71.7 years for men and 71.1 years for women.
Italy follows with 69.1 years (68.5 for men and 69.6 for women), followed by Bulgaria (68.6 years), Greece (66.6 years), Slovenia (66.6 years), Sweden (66.2 years) and Ireland (66.1 years).
At the other end of the scale, residents of Latvia can expect 52.7 years of healthy lives, with Denmark on 56.3 and Finland on 57.1.
At country level, there were only nine EU countries where men registered more healthy life years than women, Eurostat noted. No data was available for Luxembourg. Read more here.
Healthy Life Expectancy by EU Member State – 2023 (in years)
| Country | Total | Males | Females |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 64.0 | 64.4 | 63.5 |
| Bulgaria | 68.6 | 66.3 | 71.0 |
| Czechia | 62.0 | 61.5 | 62.6 |
| Denmark | 56.3 | 57.0 | 55.4 |
| Germany | 62.5 | 62.1 | 63.0 |
| Estonia | 58.1 | 56.5 | 59.6 |
| Ireland | 66.1 | 66.0 | 66.2 |
| Greece | 66.6 | 66.0 | 67.3 |
| Spain | 62.1 | 62.4 | 61.8 |
| France | 63.8 | 63.5 | 64.1 |
| Croatia | 61.4 | 60.4 | 62.4 |
| Italy | 69.1 | 68.5 | 69.6 |
| Cyprus | 65.0 | 64.4 | 65.7 |
| Latvia | 52.7 | 51.2 | 54.3 |
| Lithuania | 60.9 | 58.9 | 62.9 |
| Luxembourg | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Hungary | 63.6 | 62.5 | 64.6 |
| Malta | 71.4 | 71.7 | 71.1 |
| Netherlands | 59.0 | 60.6 | 57.5 |
| Austria | 60.4 | 60.3 | 60.5 |
| Poland | 63.1 | 61.7 | 64.4 |
| Portugal | 59.6 | 61.0 | 58.3 |
| Romania | 59.2 | 59.4 | 58.9 |
| Slovenia | 66.6 | 64.6 | 68.8 |
| Slovakia | 57.5 | 56.8 | 58.2 |
| Finland | 57.1 | 58.1 | 55.9 |
| Sweden | 66.2 | 67.2 | 65.0 |
