Self-perceived health (i15)
- 31/10/2025
- objective
- assessment
In 2024, 91.7% 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 2024 the trend is undetermined (assessment of November 2025).
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 | 2024 | 2023//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 91.7 | 91.0 | 90.5 | 91.2 | 90.9 | 92.2 | 91.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| EU27 | -- | 90.2 | 90.2 | 91.5 | 91.4 | 91.5 | 91.4 | -0.1 | -- |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Note: break in series: BE 2019; BE 2020 data collection impacted by Covid-19 pandemic The 95% confidence interval for the share of the population aged 16 and over that reports being in very good, good or average health in 2024 is 91,1% to 92,4% for Belgium.
Source: Statbel (2025), Santé perçue, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/risque-de-pauvrete-ou-dexclusion-sociale#panel-12 and Eurostat (2025), Self-perceived health, hlth_silc_10, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat, last update of data 01/10/2025 11:00 (consulted on 02/10/2025). Statbel (2025), direct communication 6/10/2025
Self-perceived health: very good, good or fair, by region - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brussels-Capital Region | 88.6 | 91.9 | 91.1 | 0.6 |
| Flemish Region | 92.7 | 93.7 | 93.2 | 0.1 |
| Walloon Region | 88.3 | 89.4 | 89.1 | 0.2 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | ||||
Note: The 95% confidence interval for the share of the population aged 16 and over that reports being in very good, good or average health in 2024 is 89,7% to 92,4% for Brussels, 92,3% to 94,2% for Flanders and 88% to 90,2% for Wallonia.
Source: Statbel (2025), Santé perçue, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/risque-de-pauvrete-ou-dexclusion-sociale#panel-12 (consulted on 02/10/2025) and direct communication 6/10/2025
Self-perceived health: very good, good or fair, by sex - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| females | 90.3 | 89.8 | 88.7 | 89.9 | 90.1 | 91.3 | 90.8 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| males | 93.2 | 92.2 | 92.4 | 92.7 | 91.7 | 93.1 | 92.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Note: break in series: 2019; data collection 2020 impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic
Source: Statbel (2025), Santé perçue, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/risque-de-pauvrete-ou-dexclusion-sociale#panel-12 (consulted on 02/10/2025).
Self-perceived health: very good, good or fair, by age - Belgium
percentage
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16-24 | 98.3 | 98.9 | 98.5 | 98.1 | 97.9 | 98.7 | 98.5 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| 25-49 | 95.1 | 94.6 | 94.2 | 94.8 | 94.7 | 95.1 | 94.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| 50-64 | 88.6 | 88.1 | 87.8 | 88.8 | 87.5 | 89.5 | 87.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| >64 | 83.0 | 81.6 | 81.5 | 83.9 | 84.3 | 86.5 | 87.0 | 0.6 | 0.1 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Note: break in series: 2019; data collection 2020 impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic
Source: Statbel (2025), Santé perçue, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/risque-de-pauvrete-ou-dexclusion-sociale#panel-12 (consulted on 02/10/2025).
Self-perceived health: very good, good or fair, by income - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| quintile 1 | 84.5 | 82.9 | 80.3 | 82.8 | 81.2 | 83.1 | 84.8 | 0.9 | -0.2 |
| quintile 2 | 87.0 | 85.7 | 85.7 | 86.5 | 87.7 | 88.7 | 87.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| quintile 3 | 93.5 | 92.5 | 92.4 | 92.9 | 91.7 | 94.2 | 92.5 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| quintile 4 | 95.5 | 96.2 | 96.5 | 96.3 | 95.9 | 96.5 | 96.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| quintile 5 | 97.4 | 97.1 | 97.4 | 97.8 | 97.5 | 98.1 | 96.9 | -0.1 | 0.0 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Note: break in series: 2019; data collection 2020 impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic
Source: Statbel (2025), Santé perçue, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/risque-de-pauvrete-ou-dexclusion-sociale#panel-12 (consulted on 02/10/2025).
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 for Belgium come directly from Statistics Belgium. The data for international comparison 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.
The following breakdowns are available for this indicator: region, sex, income and age.
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.
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
- 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 27/08/2025)
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