According to a study by Eurostat, Portugal is the fifth country in Europe with the worst quality of life for women as they age and the second country with the largest gender difference. The study conducted refers to the year 2020, the first year of the covid-19 pandemic.
Portugal takes 25th place in a list with 29 European countries. Only women from Lithuania, Finland, Slovakia, and Denmark have less healthy life years. Portuguese women can only expect to live without an illness until 58.7 years of age, while the age for men is 63.5 years. The EU average is 63.5 healthy life years for the male sex and 64.5 healthy life years for the female sex.
Although Portuguese women have a higher life expectancy that Portuguese men, their healthy life years are inferior by 2.1 years. This difference is the second-highest in the European Union, only surpassed by the Netherlands with a 2.8 year difference.
However, in comparison to 2019, Portugal still improved its ranking when it comes to the healthy life years of women.
The study by Eurostat analyzed three phases of the population’s life, starting at birth, excluding residents in nursing homes.
Healthy life years, also known as HLY are the number of years that a person is expected to continue to live in a healthy condition.