Self-perceived health (i13)
- 30/11/2023
- objective
- assessment
In 2022, 92.0% of the population aged 16 and over in Belgium declare themselves being in a very good, good or average health. To achieve the sustainable development goal by 2030, this figure must increase. Between 2005 and 2022 the trend is undetermined (assessment of November 2023).
Self-perceived health: very good, good or fair - Belgium and international comparison
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2022 | 2022//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 91.7 | 91.0 | 90.5 | 91.2 | 90.9 | 92.2 | 92.0 | 0.4 | 0.0 |
| EU27 | -- | 90.2 | 90.3 | 91.5 | 91.5 | 91.5 | 91.3 | -0.1 | -- |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
break in series: BE 2019; BE 2020 data collection impacted by Covid-19 pandemic
Statbel (2023), direct communication (07/03/2023) and Eurostat (2023), Self-perceived health [hlth_silc_01], https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 27/09/2023).
Self-perceived health: very good, good or fair, by region - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | 2022//2019 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brussels-Capital Region | 88.6 | 91.3 | 91.6 | 1.1 |
| Flemish Region | 92.7 | 93.3 | 93.4 | 0.3 |
| Walloon Region | 88.3 | 90.0 | 89.6 | 0.5 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | ||||
The margin of uncertainty for this indicator is indicated in the text for the latest year.
Statbel (2023), direct communication (07/03/2023).
Self-perceived health: very good, good or fair, by sex - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2022 | 2022//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| females | 90.3 | 89.8 | 88.7 | 89.8 | 90.1 | 91.3 | 90.9 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| males | 93.2 | 92.2 | 92.4 | 92.7 | 91.7 | 93.1 | 93.2 | 0.5 | 0.0 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
break in series: 2019; data collection 2020 impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic
Statbel (2023), direct communication (07/03/2023) and Eurostat (2023), Self-perceived health [hlth_silc_01], https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 27/09/2023).
Self-perceived health: very good, good or fair, by age - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2022 | 2022//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| <25 | 98.3 | 98.9 | 98.5 | 98.2 | 97.9 | 98.7 | 98.4 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| 25-49 | 95.1 | 94.6 | 94.2 | 94.9 | 94.8 | 95.1 | 95.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| 50-64 | 88.6 | 88.1 | 87.8 | 89.1 | 87.5 | 89.5 | 89.8 | 0.9 | 0.0 |
| >64 | 83.0 | 81.6 | 81.4 | 83.6 | 84.3 | 86.5 | 86.1 | 0.7 | 0.1 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
break in series: 2019; data collection 2020 impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic
Statbel (2023), direct communication (07/03/2023).
Self-perceived health: very good, good or fair, by income - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2022 | 2022//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| quintile 1 | 84.3 | 82.9 | 80.4 | 82.7 | 81.2 | 83.1 | 83.5 | 0.9 | -0.1 |
| quintile 2 | 87.9 | 85.7 | 85.7 | 86.4 | 87.7 | 88.7 | 89.3 | 0.6 | -0.1 |
| quintile 3 | 93.3 | 92.6 | 92.4 | 92.8 | 91.7 | 94.3 | 93.2 | 0.5 | 0.0 |
| quintile 4 | 95.7 | 96.2 | 96.5 | 96.2 | 95.9 | 96.5 | 96.5 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| quintile 5 | 97.2 | 97.1 | 97.4 | 97.7 | 97.5 | 98.1 | 97.7 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
break in series: 2019; data collection 2020 impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic
Statbel (2023), direct communication (07/03/2023).
Definition: the share of the population aged 16 and over that reports being in very good, good or average health. The data are from the European Union survey Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). The survey participants are asked to choose one of five conditions to describe their (self-perceived) health status: very good, good, average, bad and very bad health. Statistics Belgium organises this EU-harmonised survey in Belgium and makes the results available, in particular to Eurostat. The data used here for Belgium come directly from Statistics Belgium and the data used for comparison with the rest of the EU come from Eurostat. 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.
From 2019 onwards, the survey methodology has been thoroughly reviewed for better accuracy. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic impacted data collection. This makes it difficult to compare the results of SILC 2020 with those of previous years. (Statbel, 2021). Therefore, they are not used to calculate and evaluate the long-term trend.
Goal: the share of the population aged 16 and over that reports being in very good, good or average health 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.” Changes in the share of population reporting good health measure progress towards goal 3.
International comparison: between 2010 and 2022 the indicator has experienced close developments in Belgium and in the European Union. In 2022, 91.3% of the European population say they are in very good, good or average health, compared to 92.0% in Belgium. When Member States are divided into three groups, Belgium is part of the group with average performance and outperforms the European average in 2022. In that year, Malta ranked first with 95.9% and Latvia last with 85.8%.
UN Indicator: the selected indicator does not correspond to any monitoring indicator for the SDGs but is related to goal 3 since perceived health is a measure of the overall health of the population and its level of well-being.
Sources
-
General
-
SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.
-
Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.
-
UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).
- UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).
-
-
Specific
- Statbel (2021), SILC FAQ, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/faq, see in particular "Y a-t-il des ruptures de séries dans la chronologie de l'enquête SILC ?" (consulted on 19/11/2021)
Federal Planning Bureau
At www.indicators.be the Federal Planning Bureau presents sustainable development indicators.
2023 © cic@plan.be