A report published by the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that Maltese people, along with the Swedes, have the highest rate of healthy life years in the EU.

According to the report titled: "Health at a Glance: Europe 2016", life expectancy now exceeds 80 years in most EU countries. However, this record-high life expectancy is not always matched by healthy life years. Around 50 million people in the EU suffer from several chronic diseases, and more than half a million people of working age die from them every year, representing an annual cost of some €115 billion for EU economies.

Healthy life years (HLY) is an important European indicator which is designed to monitor whether the extra years of life are lived in good health. The report states that the current main indicator of HLY is a measure of disability-free life expectancy which indicates how long people can expect to live without disability. On average across EU member states, HLY at birth in 2014 was 61.8 years for women and 61.4 years for men. It was highest in Malta and Sweden for both women and men (above 70 years), and shortest in the Slovak Republic, Latvia and Portugal for women, and in Latvia, Estonia and the Slovak Republic for men. In Malta and Sweden, women can expect to live more than 85% of their life expectancy without limitations in their usual activities, while this proportion reaches over 90% for men.

European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis said: "The Health at a Glance report provides useful information for Member States to shape their actions on health across all policies. It shows that in the EU many people die every year from potentially avoidable diseases linked to risk factors such as smoking or obesity. It also highlights the need to continue our efforts in making sure that healthcare becomes more accessible. The report represents the flagship of the partnership between the Commission and the OECD to develop country-specific and cross-country knowledge on health and health systems, as the first step of the 'State of Health in the EU'.

According to the report, 550,000 people of working age die every year from potentially avoidable diseases. 16% of adults are obese now (up from 11% in 2000) and one in five are still smoking.

Figures from 2013 show that Malta’s mortality rate from Ischemic heart disease stood at 538 per 100,000 population, significantly higher than the EU 28 average.

Statistics available in the report show that 27% of patients go to the emergency department due to the lack of availability of primary care. In addition, an average of 15% of health spending is paid directly out-of-pocket by patients with large disparities between countries.

The report highlights that poor Europeans are, on average, 10 times more likely to have problems in getting proper healthcare for financial reasons than more affluent ones. It recommends that Member States' policies should focus on reducing financial barriers to healthcare, strengthening access to primary care, and reducing excessive waiting times.

Across the EU, the share of the population over 65 has increased from less than 10% in 1960 to nearly 20% in 2015 and is projected to increase to nearly 30% by 2060. Population ageing, combined with increasing rates of chronic diseases and budgetary constraints, will require changes in how healthcare is delivered, including developing eHealth, reducing hospital stays by organising services better in primary and community care, and spending more wisely on pharmaceuticals, a press statement accompanying the report read.

The report also shows that Malta has one of the lowest suicide rates in the EU