Remarks

Tables and figures present the sum of percentages of people perceiving their health as good or very good.

Data on self-perceived health was retrieved from the national Health Interview Surveys (HIS round 2004) and based on the answer of respondents (aged 15 and more) to the question 'How is your health in general?’ using the following scale: “very good”, “good”, “fair”, “bad” and “very bad”. The question is standard but the interpretation subject to cultural bias.

The HIS data are collected in different years depending on the country, going from 1996 to 2003. There is no fixed periodicity in these kinds of health surveys. Very few countries have a yearly survey on these topics. A tabular overview is given in HIS 2004 surveys. The national surveys are not all performed in the same period and results are not all at the same time available.

From 2004 in EU-15 Member States and 2005 in the new Member States, the new EU Statistics on Income and Living Condition survey (SILC) will be used.