The average Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE), which measures years an individual can expect to live in good health i.e. without suffering from disabilities of disease, was 64.2 years for women and 63.5 years for men in the European Union in 2016, according to figures released on Tuesday by Eurostat.

In Croatia, the HLE was calculated at 58.7 years for women and 57.1 years for men in the same period. This means that Croatian women and men spend on average 77 and 81 percent respectively of their total life expectancy free of any serious or debilitating illnesses.

Although in 2016 the average life expectancy for women in the EU was 5.4 years longer than for men, most of these additional years tend to be lived with limited activity. On the other hand, men tend to spend a greater portion of their shorter lives free from health-related limitations.

By country, Sweden had the highest HLE on record, with 73.3 years for women and 73.0 years for men. At the bottom of the EU ranking was Latvia, with HLE at 54.9 years for women and 52.3 years for men.

Eurostat noted that such a large difference can be in part attributed to different criteria various countries use to measure health-related activity limitations.

Regardless, countries with Healthy Life Expectancy above EU average are largely those with a high standard of living, although there are some exceptions like Bulgaria, which is in the upper half of the rankings, while Switzerland and Luxembourg, countries with the highest standard of living, recorded HLE figures below EU average.

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