According to data from the Central Statistical Office (CSO), women in Poland remain in good health longer than men. Healthy life expectancy is an indicator showing the average number of years a person lives in good health, while maintaining current mortality conditions. In other words, it is the age to which people can enjoy life without disability.

According to the CSO, in 2021, healthy life expectancy was 59.1 years for men and 63.1 years for women. The difference in healthy life expectancy between the two genders was therefore four years in favour of women. This value decreases with lived years. For those aged 50 years, it was 2.4 years and for those aged 65 years it was only 1.1 years.

Increasing healthy life expectancy is one of the main goals of health policy in many countries. If healthy life expectancy is increasing faster than average life expectancy, this means that people are experiencing good health for an increasing proportion of their lives.

Women living in the west of Poland are most likely to live longer in good health. The highest rate was recorded in the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship with 64.8 years, as well as the Zachodnio-Pomorskie and Lubuskie Voivodeships (64.5 years each). At the other extreme are the Śląskie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie and Łódzkie voivodeships.

In the case of men, the longest healthy life expectancy was characterised by the voivodeships of Wielkopolskie (61.1 years), Zachodniopomorskie (60.7 years), Lubuskie (60.1 years) and Pomorskie (60 years). The regions characterised by low life expectancy and healthy life expectancy include Lubelskie, Łódzkie and Śląskie voivodeships.

The only voivodeship where life expectancy and healthy life expectancy reached a high level was Pomorskie. Noteworthy is also the Lubuskie voivodeship, where, despite a low life expectancy, a relatively high healthy life expectancy was recorded.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński