Healthy life years (i14)
- 31/10/2025
- objective
- assessment assessment
In 2023, healthy life expectancy in Belgium stood at 64 years. To achieve the sustainable development goal by 2030, this figure must increase. Between 2005 and 2023 the trend is undetermined (November 2025 assessment).
Healthy life years - Belgium and international comparison
years at birth
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2023//2005 | 2023//2017 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 62.4 | 63.3 | 64.2 | 63.7 | 63.8 | 64.6 | 63.7 | 64.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| EU27 | 60.9 | 61.8 | 62.8 | 63.9 | 64.0 | 63.6 | 62.6 | 63.1 | 0.2 | -0.2 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | ||||||||||
Note: break in time series: BE 2019, EU 2008 and 2015; estimates: EU 2005 and 2006
Source: Statbel; Eurostat (2025), Healthy life years, hlth_hlye, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat, last update of data 4/07/2025 23:00 (consulted on 21/08/2025).
Healthy life years and life expectancy - Belgium
years at birth
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2023//2005 | 2023//2017 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| healthy | 62.4 | 63.3 | 64.2 | 63.7 | 63.8 | 64.6 | 63.7 | 64.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| total | 79.1 | 80.3 | 81.1 | 81.6 | 80.8 | 81.9 | 81.8 | 82.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | ||||||||||
Note: break in time series: BE 2019, EU 2008 and 2015; estimates: EU 2005 and 2006
Source: Statbel; Eurostat (2025), Healthy life years, hlth_hlye, and Mortality and life expectancy statistics, demo_mlexpec, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat, last update of data 4/07/2025 23:00 (consulted on 21/08/2025).
Healthy life years by sex - Belgium
years at birth
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2023//2005 | 2023//2017 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| females | 62.3 | 62.6 | 64.0 | 64.0 | 64.0 | 64.4 | 63.3 | 63.5 | 0.1 | -0.1 |
| males | 62.4 | 64.0 | 64.4 | 63.3 | 63.6 | 64.8 | 64.1 | 64.4 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | ||||||||||
Note: break in time series: 2019
Source: Statbel; Eurostat (2025), Healthy life years, hlth_hlye, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat, last update of data 4/07/2025 23:00 (consulted on 21/08/2025).
Definition: healthy life expectancy measures the number of years a person of a given age can expect to live without serious or moderate health problems. It is calculated on the basis of life expectancy and surveys assessing the share of people who consider themselves in good or poor health and is expressed in years. The data presented here are drawn from mortality statistics and from data on perceived health collected from the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey (EU-SILC). Statistics Belgium organises this EU-harmonised survey in Belgium and makes the results available, in particular to Eurostat. The data used here come from Eurostat, which publishes detailed and comparable results between EU Member States. Since these data are based on surveys, a margin of uncertainty must be taken into account. The confidence intervals for these data are available on request from Statistics Belgium.
The following breakdown is available for this indicator: sex.
Goal: healthy life expectancy must increase.
The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include goal 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.”
The Federal Long-Term Strategic Vision for Sustainable Development includes objective 4: "Healthy life expectancy will have increased compared to 2010. The gap in healthy life expectancy by education level and gender will be reduced by 50% on average” (Belgian Official Gazette, 08/10/2013).
UN indicator: the selected indicator does not correspond to any monitoring indicator for the SDGs but is related to goal 3 since it measures the population health status.
Sources
At www.indicators.be the Federal Planning Bureau presents sustainable development indicators.
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