Healthy life expectancy

Healthy life expectancy (HALE) describes the average number of years that a person can expect to live in ‘full health’ by taking into account years lived in less than full health owing to disease and/or injury. As is the case for life expectancy, HALE in the EU in 2015 was higher among females than among males, both at birth and at age 60.
Nine of the ten countries with the highest increase in female HALE at birth between 2000 and 2015 are sub-Saharan African (from 11.7 to 16.9 years). Syria is the only country in which it dropped (by 3.9 years). Iraq, Guyana, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela join Syria at the bottom of the list. By way of comparison, the average for women in the EU increased by 4.2 years over the same period. Butan and Mali are the only countries in which males had a higher HALE at birth than females in 2015.