Disability-free life expectancy, which is the number of years a person can expect to live without being limited in activities of daily living, increased in France in 2021.
Life expectancy at age 65 without disability, also sometimes called “life expectancy in good health”, continues to progress in France, indicates in a press release the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and statistics on Thursday.
In 2021, it is 12.6 years for women and 11.3 years for men, an increase of 0.8 and 0.9 years respectively compared to the revised Dress data for 2020. The increase is more significant compared to 2008: “+ 2 years and 7 months for women and + 2 years and 8 months for men.”
Above the European average in 2020
Disability-free life expectancy at age 65 is used to estimate the number of years a person can expect to live without being limited in the activities of daily living due to a health problem.
A 65-year-old woman in 2022 can therefore still expect to live 12.6 years “disability-free.”
“Disability-free life expectancy at birth, which takes into account the possible occurrence of disabilities throughout life, has also increased, by 2 years and 6 months for women between 2008 and 2021 and by 2 years and 10 months for men. It stands at 67.0 years for women and 65.6 years for men,” says Dress.
These data should not be confused with life expectancy at birth, another indicator that does not take into account the risk of disability.
In 2020, “France was in tenth place among European Union countries regarding the indicator of disability-free life expectancy for men at age 65”, notes the Dress. And fifth for women.
In both cases, France is above the average for the countries of the Old Continent: eight months longer for men, one year and eight months longer for women.