The good health perception of the Portuguese decreased compared to 2020, a year in which 51.3% of the Portuguese considered themselves to be healthy or very healthy. The country is below the EU average, where 69% of respondents consider their health to be good or very good. The alliance average also decreased compared to 2020 (69.5%).

The data was reported by Eurostat and states that among the EU member countries (and in opposition to the Portuguese reality), the countries where most of the population aged 16 or over say they feel healthy or very healthy are Ireland (81.2%), Greece (78.3%), Cyprus (77.2%) and Luxembourg (76.5%).

On average, in the last year, seven out of ten people in the EU aged 16 or over rated their health status as good or very good (which corresponds to 69% of the sample). Similar to the Portuguese reality, it is men who have a more positive perception of their health, namely 72% compared to 67% of women.

The only exception is Ireland. In the northwestern European country, women are the ones most consider to have good or very good health, although the difference is not very expressive (81.4% of women to 81% of men).

According to Eurostat data, the perception of good or very good health decreased with age in 2021. The age group from 16 to 24 years old is considered the healthiest, with a gradual decrease being recorded up to 85 years old or more, where only 2.4% of respondents consider themselves to be very healthy.

The gap in perceived health between men and women also increased with age. In older age groups, the percentage point difference between sexes was greater than in younger age groups.

In the age group from 75 to 84 years old, there was a gap of 6.3 percentage points between men and women. In turn, in the age group of 85 years or more, there was a gap of 5 percentage points.


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