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This section presents information on healthy life expectancy, also named health expectancy. A health expectancy identifies the number of years a person can be expected to live in good health. Therefore, the emphasis is not exclusively on the length of life as in the case of life expectancy, but also on the quality of life. Health expectancies address the question, for instance, whether an increase in life expectancy is accompanied by an increase in the time lived in good health.
As there are many ways to measure health, there are many health expectancies. Here we present data on the EU structural indicator Healthy Life Years (HLY), and on the Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy (HALE) indicator used by WHO.
The EU structural indicator HLY is based on the measurement of health-related limitations in daily activities. It identifies the average number of years people can expect to live without health-related activity limitations. For more information see the remarks included under the tables and figures (source: EHEMU, Eurostat).
The WHO indicator HALE is based on estimates of the prevalence of disability and on a weighting of the severity of these disabilities. It identifies the number of years people can expect to live without disability, using the aforementioned calculation method (source: WHO-HFA).
Since the HALE and HLY calculations use different basic data, assumptions and methodologies, their outcomes are different. HALE calculations are considerably more complex and data-needy than HLY calculations.
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