We know people are living longer. However, do we live longer and better or do we gain only years of life in bad health?

The indicator of healthy life years (HLY) measures the number of remaining years that a person of specific age is expected to live without any severe or moderate health problems. The notion of health problem for Eurostat's HLY is reflecting a disability dimension and is based on a self-perceived question which aims to measure the extent of any limitations, for at least six months, because of a health problem that may have affected respondents as regards activities they usually do (the so-called GALI - Global Activity Limitation Instrument foreseen in the annual EU-SILC survey). The indicator is therefor also called disability-free life expectancy (DFLE). So, HLY is a composite indicator that combines mortality data with health status data.

HLY also monitor health as a productive or economic factor. An increase in healthy life years is one of the main goals for European health policy. And it would not only improve the situation of individuals but also result in lower levels of public health care expenditure. If healthy life years are increasing more rapidly than life expectancy, it means that people are living more years in better health.

Please note that a revision took place in March 2012: the whole series 2004-2010 were recalculated taking into account: