In the framework of the European Year for Active Ageing, the European Commission published an article with the data gathered by Eurostat on life expectancy (LE) and Healthy Life Years' (HLY), an important European policy indicator. In particular, the figures in the EU in 2010 showed that Sweden had the longest LE at birth, at 79.6 years for men, and the HLY rate was of 71.7 years.

According to the article published by the European Commission, the number of European citizens aged 65 and over is set to double over the next 50 years. The data on life expectancy (LE) for this ageing European population can help to make predictions for the future, but they still only tell half the story. For this reason, it has been created the 'Healthy Life Years' (HLY), as an important European policy indicator put in place as part of the Lisbon Strategy to assess the quality of life and functional health status of Europeans. The HLY indicator is also part of the European Community Health Indicators (ECHI), and was set as the overarching target of the first European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Active and Healthy Ageing that was launched in February 2011. The aim of the Active and Healthy Ageing EIP is to ensure care for Europe's ageing population is sustainable in the long term, with the target being an increase of two years of healthy life in the EU by 2020.

HLY data are obtained by applying the prevalence of disability observed in the general population to a standard life table, to distribute the years lived into those lived with disability and those lived free of disability. LE at birth is the average number of years that a newborn is expected to live if current mortality rates continue to apply. In 2009, the LE at birth for men living in the EU is 79.7 years, and the figures show that of these, they can expect 61.3 HLY, nearly 80% of their LE at birth. For the same year, women in the EU could expect 62 HLY, 75% of their LE at birth: 82.6 years.

With regard to the 2010 data, Sweden had the longest LE at birth in the EU, at 79.6 years for men, while Lithuania had the shortest, at 68 years. Swedish men can also expect to be healthy up to the age of 71.7 years, whereas men in Slovakia have the lowest HLY rate at 52.3 years. For women in 2010 in the EU, France and Spain had the longest LE at birth (85.3 years), and Bulgaria the shortest (77.4 years), a gap of nearly 8 years. In 2010, Malta had the highest HLY rate (71.6 years) for women and Slovakia the lowest (52.1 years).