Life expectancy has increased throughout the decades, and according to the latest set of data issued by Eurostat, so has the length of period that a person remains healthy. 

Eurostat’s data, which caters for 2020, shows that Malta ranks second, after Sweden, for healthy life years with the average rate of healthy years standing at 70.7 years for women and 70.2 years for men. 

Malta’s healthy life years at birth have far surpassed the European average as, in accordance with the latest statistics on the matter, which were published on Monday, the European estimate healthy life years expectancy for 2020 for women stood at 64.5 years, and 63.5 years for men. 

However, healthy life years for Malta have been shifting throughout the years as going back five years, in 2015 it stood at 72.6 years for men and at 74.6 years for women, which has been a time high for the gender ever since. 

The following year there was a drop for both genders as it was recorded at 71.1 years for men and at 72.4 years for women. The numbers slightly recovered in 2017 as healthy life years stood at 71.9 years for men and at 73.4 years for women. 

In 2018 the statistics for both genders did not change, however they did increase once again in 2019, as it was recorded at 72.9 for men, and at 73.5 years for women. Despite these estimates for 2019 and having placed at second place amongst member states for the year of 2020, the estimate for healthy life years has decreased drastically when compared the previous year. 

The difference between genders was considerably low, with Eurostat’s study noting that “the gender gap was considerably smaller in terms of healthy life years than it was for overall life expectancy”. 

Overall, the life expectancy for women in the EU stood at an average of 5.7 years longer than that for men in the year of 2020. In contrast the gender gap was considerably low since it was just a 1.0-year difference in favour of women. 

Across all European member states life expectancy, starting from birth for women in 2020 ranged between 77.5 years in Bulgaria to 85.3 years in France. 

A similar comparison for men shows that the lowest level of life expectancy in 2020 was also recorded in Bulgaria 70.0 years and the highest in Ireland 80.8 years.