Healthy life years measure the number of years that a person can expect to live in a healthy condition. When considering the population aged 65 years, life expectancy is provisionally estimated at 21.0 years for women and 17.4 years for men in the EU27 in 2010. As regards healthy life years, women at the age of 65 in the EU27 in 2010 were expected to live a further 8.8 years in a healthy condition, and men 8.7 years.

It is interesting to note that the Member States where the population has the highest life expectancy at the age of 65 are not necessarily the same as those with the most healthy life years at 65. Another interesting aspect of these indicators is the difference between women and men. In all Member States, women have a longer life expectancy at 65 than men, while for healthy life years at the age of 65, men have a higher number of years than women in ten Member States.

This information is published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union in connection with the first meeting of the European Joint Action on Healthy Life Years organised within the framework of the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 2012.

Longest life expectancy at the age of 65 in France and Spain for both women and men

In 2010, the longest life expectancy at 65 for women was observed in France (23.4 years), Spain (22.7 years) and Italy (22.1 years in 2009), and for men in France (18.9 years), Spain (18.6 years) and Greece (18.5 years). The shortest life expectancy at 65 for women was recorded in Bulgaria (17.0 years), Romania (17.2 years in 2009) and Slovakia (18.0 years), and for men in Latvia (13.3 years), Lithuania (13.5 years) and Bulgaria (13.6 years).

Most healthy life years at the age of 65 in Sweden for both women and men

In 2010, the highest number of healthy life years at 65 for women was recorded in Sweden (15.5 years), Denmark (12.8 years), Luxembourg (12.4 years), Malta (11.9 years) and the United Kingdom (11.8 years), and for men in Sweden (14.1 years), Malta (12.0 years), Denmark (11.8 years), Ireland (11.1 years) and the United Kingdom (10.8 years). The lowest number of healthy life years for both women and men was observed in Slovakia (2.8 years for women and 3.3 years for men), followed by Romania (5.0 years) and Estonia (5.5 years) for women, and Latvia (4.9 years) and Estonia (5.3 years) for men.