Life expectancy and healthy life years: what each figure measures
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In brief
- Life expectancy is the average number of years a population would live if one year's mortality rates held. Healthy life years subtract the part of those years that, according to what people report in a survey, is lived with limitations due to a health problem.52
- With the European indicator, in Spain in 2023 women had a life expectancy at birth of 86.7 years and 61.8 healthy life years; men, 81.3 and 62.4.14 That is, about 25 and 19 years, respectively, with some reported limitation.
- The figure depends heavily on the method. With the same question, but counting only severe limitation, Spain's Ministerio de Sanidad estimates 81.9 healthy life years for women and 78.2 for men in 2023;5 the WHO, with another method, gives 71.8 and 70.3 for 2021.6
- Because they're based on what each person answers about themselves, comparisons between countries are tricky: they work better for following trends within a single country.89
- They're averages for a population, not a forecast for anyone: they don't tell you how many healthy years you'll live.5
Spain often appears among the European countries where people live longest,3 and at the same time you hear that many of those years are lived in poor health. Both ideas can be true, because they refer to different figures: one counts years, and the other tries to count how many of them are lived without limitations.
This article explains what each indicator measures, what the figures for Spain and the European Union say, why three organizations give three different numbers, and what they mean, and don't mean, for an individual. What living more years in good health means, what research can say today and what's in your hands, we bring together in the guide to healthy longevity.
What each indicator measures
Life expectancy at a given age is the average number of years a group of people of that age would live if, for the rest of their lives, the age-specific mortality rates of a particular year held. It's a hypothetical measure: it's calculated with today's mortality, which will change, and it refers to the population as a whole, not to an individual, who may live more or fewer years.5
Healthy life years (in the European Union, also called “disability-free life expectancy”) start from that same life table and subtract the years lived with limitations. To know what share of people at each age live with limitations, a survey is used: it asks whether, for at least six months, a health problem has limited you in activities people usually do, and you can answer “severely limited,” “limited but not severely” or “not limited at all.” In the European indicator, only the years of people who answer “not limited at all” count as healthy. This calculation is called the Sullivan method.2
The healthy life expectancy (HALE) of the World Health Organization (WHO) is the average number of years a person would live in “full health.” It doesn't come from a single question: the WHO estimates, from data on diseases and injuries, the years lived with some health problem, weighted by severity, and converts them into equivalent years of full health.7 Where complete and reliable mortality data are lacking, especially in low-income countries, the WHO relies on models, and it warns that its figures may differ somewhat from each country's official tables.6
What's the point of having both measures? To answer a question that life expectancy alone can't: whether the years gained are lived in good health. When healthy life years grow faster than life expectancy, this is called “compression of morbidity”; when the opposite happens, “expansion.”5
The figures for Spain and the EU
Figure 1. Life expectancy and healthy life years at birth in Spain, 2023
Subtracting the figures in the chart, in 2023 women spent on average about 25 years with some limitation and men about 19. Women live longer, but they have no more years without limitations than men: according to the INE, their higher life expectancy goes hand in hand with poorer health.4 At age 65 it's even clearer: at that age, women had on average 23.9 years of life left and men 19.8, but only about 10 of them without limitations in both cases (10.2 and 10.3).1
In the EU as a whole, in 2023, women had 63.3 healthy life years at birth and men 62.8: 75.4% and 79.8% of their life expectancy.3 That year, women in Spain had the highest life expectancy in the EU, 86.7 years, but their healthy life years were below the European average.31 Before reading that as meaning that people in Spain live worse, it's worth looking at where each figure comes from.
Why each source gives a different figure
For the same country and the same year, figures circulate that are up to about 20 years apart. It isn't a mistake: each one decides differently what counts as a “healthy” year.
| Indicator | What counts as a year not in good health | Where the health data come from | Spain: women and men, at birth (latest year published by each source) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eurostat healthy life years (the same ones the INE publishes) | Any limitation, severe or not, that the person reports in their usual activities | European living conditions survey, every year, excluding the population living in institutions3 | 2023: 61.8 and 62.4 years1 |
| Ministerio de Sanidad healthy life years | Only severe limitation, with the same question | Spain's health surveys from some years; for the other years, the previous survey is used or values are interpolated5 | 2023: 81.9 and 78.2 years5 |
| WHO healthy life expectancy | Years lived with diseases or injuries, weighted by severity | Model-based estimates from data on diseases and injuries7 | 2021: 71.8 and 70.3 years6 |
What counts as a limitation. The Ministerio de Sanidad uses the same question as Eurostat, but since its 2018 report it has counted only severe limitation. It made the change because the series with any limitation were very unstable; the price is that it yields many more healthy life years: in 2024, 95.4% of life expectancy.5 With that criterion, moreover, women have more healthy life years than men, exactly the reverse of what Eurostat's criterion shows.51
Which survey, and when. Eurostat uses an annual survey on income and living conditions; the Ministerio uses Spain's health surveys, which aren't carried out every year.25 Each country applies the European survey in its own way, and a change in how the question is asked in a given year can move the result.3 Spain's series has big jumps from one year to the next: for women, 70.4 healthy life years in 2019, 60.6 in 2022 and 68.6 in 2024, the last of these flagged by Eurostat as a break in series, that is, not directly comparable with earlier years.1 Women's life expectancy, by contrast, moved much less: between 85.2 years in 2020 and 86.7 in 2019 and 2023.1
What each person understands by “being limited.” The answer also depends on each population's culture, language and health expectations.38 A study of 14 European countries and 152,787 people found that the question clearly relates to other measures of disability in all of them, but not in the same way in each country; its authors urge caution when comparing levels between countries and prefer looking at trends.9
What they mean for you, and what they don't
These figures describe a population in a given year. They don't predict how many years you'll live or how many of them without limitations: the definition itself refers to the population as a whole, and each person may live more or fewer years than the average.5 Nor are they the actual lifespan of someone born that year, because they're calculated with that year's mortality and health, which will keep changing.5
- What they do say. That in Spain, as in the EU as a whole, a significant part of life is spent with some limitation due to health problems, and that the gap is bigger for women.34
- What they're useful for. Following a population's health over time, with the same indicator and the same source.89
- What they don't say. On their own, they don't tell you what part of a difference is due to habits, to health care or to other causes. And a difference of about a year, or somewhat more, between countries may be partly due to how people answer the survey: in the study cited, the adjustment reached 1.6 years.8
The survey question is about something very specific: being able to do everyday activities. How physical activity relates to keeping that ability, we review in why talk about independence, and not just years.
Something similar happens with the studies linking a habit to living longer: they talk about groups and risks, not about your case, and it helps to know how to read a headline linking a habit to living longer. And if you wonder whether some test could say something about your case, we cover what “biological age” tests measure and what their limits are separately.
Keep reading
Healthy longevity: what living longer in good health means
What living more years in good health means, what research can say today and what's in your hands.
Relative and absolute risk: how to read health headlines
How to read a study or a headline linking a habit to living longer, without confusing a group's risk with yours.
Biological age: what the tests measure and their limits
What “biological age” tests measure, how they differ from the age you are and what they can't tell you.
Exercise for aging with independence: what to do and how much
How physical activity relates to still being able to do everyday things on your own.
Want to turn information into action?
naro helps you prioritize 2–3 high-potential habits and sustain them over time, with context and follow-up.
Sources
Each small number in the text leads to the source that statement rests on. Practical advice without a number is a deduction from these sources, and examples with a person's name are made up. It is general information: it does not replace an assessment by a health professional. How we make this content
Sources consulted up to 28 October 2026.
- Official statistical database. Eurostat (2026). Healthy life years by sex (from 2004 onwards) [hlth_hlye]. Eurostat (European Commission). Life expectancy and healthy life years for Spain and the EU by sex, at birth and at 65; data updated July 17, 2026. It flags Spain's 2024 figure as a break in series, and the EU's 2023 figure as a break in series, estimated and provisional.
- Official methodology sheet. Eurostat (2020). Healthy life years by sex (from 2004 onwards). Reference metadata (hlth_hlye_esms). Eurostat (European Commission). Definition of the indicator, the survey question, the Sullivan method and comparability problems between countries.
- Official statistical article. Eurostat (2025). Healthy life years statistics. Statistics Explained (Eurostat). EU figures for 2023 (data extracted in July 2025) and limits of the indicator: each person's answers about themselves, and a survey that excludes the population living in institutions.
- Official statistical indicator. Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) (2025). Mujeres y hombres en España. 4.2 Esperanza de vida en buena salud. INE. Updated July 29, 2025, with data for 2023. It uses the INE's mortality tables; its percentages differ by a few tenths from Eurostat's.
- Institutional report. Ministerio de Sanidad (2026). Esperanzas de vida en España, 2024. Ministerio de Sanidad (Spain). Published in September 2026. Its healthy life years count only severe limitation and come from Spain's health surveys: they aren't comparable with Eurostat's.
- Estimates by an international organization. World Health Organization (WHO) (2024). Spain: health data overview. Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy (HALE), Global Health Estimates. WHO Data (data.who.int). WHO data page on Spain; extraction date shown: January 8, 2024. It shows life expectancy and HALE in interactive charts (titled 2000–2023), whose latest data point is from 2021; the figures in this article are read from the WHO's public data service that feeds those charts. Model-based estimates, which may differ somewhat from each country's official tables.
- Official methodology sheet. World Health Organization (WHO) (2026). Healthy life expectancy (HALE) at birth (years). Indicator metadata registry. Global Health Observatory (WHO). Undated sheet, consulted on October 28, 2026. It defines the indicator and its method; its text describes the 2000 to 2021 estimates, based on the Global Burden of Disease 2021 study, although it already links to the methods for the 2000–2023 life tables (September 2026).
- Methods study with survey data. Luy M, Di Giulio P, Minagawa Y (2023). The impact of interpersonal reporting heterogeneity on cross-country differences in Healthy Life Years in Europe. European Journal of Public Health. Eight European countries, 2004 and 2005 data, healthy life years at age 50. The authors themselves present it as an approximation, not a correction.
- Validation study. Berger N, Van Oyen H, Cambois E, Fouweather T, Jagger C, Nusselder W, Robine JM (2015). Assessing the validity of the Global Activity Limitation Indicator in fourteen European countries. BMC Medical Research Methodology. 152,787 people from 14 countries in the European Health Interview Survey; it compares the indicator's question with other measures of disability.