Healthy life years

Healthy life years (also called disability-free life expectancy) shows the average number of years an individual is expected to live free of disability if current patterns of mortality and disability continue to apply.

To calculate healthy life years, Statistics Estonia uses the internationally recommended Sullivan method, which is convenient as few data are needed. It requires the mean annual population for five-year periods by sex and age groups, the number of deaths and the share of people with good health in these age groups.

The indicator is calculated using survey information on the extent to which people were limited in their daily activities in the prior six months because of a health problem. Only the answers where the person said that he or she did not have any health-related limitations are taken into account.