Details

Last Updated: 12 August 2024

• life expectancy

1. Key messages

2. Life expectancy

Life expectancy at birth rises above pre-covid levels

In 2023, life expectancy at birth (LE) was 82.3 years in Belgium. It was 4.1 years higher in women (84.3 years) than in men (80.2 years). In 2023, it was the first time that life expectancy in men reached 80 years old. The LE has increased more rapidly in men than in women. In fact, between 2000 and 2023, the LE increased by 5.6 years in men and 3.4 years in women, reducing the gender gap. 

Life expectancy has been rising steadily for decades, except in 2012 and 2015, when a slight decrease was observed. In 2020, due to excess mortality caused by COVID-19, life expectancy fell by 1 year to 80.8 years. In 2022, an excess mortality of 5.1% was observed, concentrated during epidemic waves of COVID-19, during periods of heat, and during influenza and bronchiolitis epidemics [1]. In 2023, life expectancy increased to reach the highest level observed, above the 2019 level (pre-COVID period).

The decrease in life expectancy by 1 year between 2019 and 2020 is mainly due to the contribution of people with an age of 60 years and over. In men, the 60-79 age group contributed to the decrease by 0.55 years (or 55% of the 1-year decrease). In women, the 80+ age group contributed to the drop in LE by 0.59 years (or 66% of the 0.9-year decrease). 

In all regions, life expectancy exceeds pre-COVID levels

In 2023, the life expectancy at birth was the highest in the Flemish Region (83.2 years), intermediate in the Brussels-Capital Region (82.2 years), and lowest in the Walloon Region (80.6 years). The regional differences in LE at birth are larger in men than in women. In men, the LE in the Flemish Region was 3.0 years higher than in the Walloon Region, and 1.5 years higher than in the Brussels-Capital Region. In women, the LE in the Flemish Region was 2.1 years higher than in the Walloon Region and 0.6 years higher than in the Brussels-Capital Region.

During the period 2000-2023, the gains in LE were larger in men compared to women in all three regions: men gained 5.8, 5.1, and 5.3 years in the Flemish, Brussels-Capital, and Walloon Regions respectively, while women gained 3.6, 3.5, and 2.9 years.

In 2023, life expectancy increased in all regions, reaching above the 2019 level. 

The LE in the German-speaking Community was 81.9 years in 2023, 4.0 years higher in women (83.9 years) than in men (79.9 years).

Life expectancy is the highest in Flemish Brabant and the lowest in Hainaut

Provincial differences in life expectancy are significant. The differences between the province with the highest life expectancy, Flemish Brabant, and the province with the lowest, Hainaut, are 4.8 years for men and 3.4 years for women.

Except for Walloon Brabant, the Flemish provinces perform better than the Walloon provinces.

There is an important gap in life expectancy between advantaged and disadvantaged socio-economic groups

In 2019, a gradient in life expectancy was observed between distinct socio-economic groups. The gaps between the most advantaged and most disadvantaged groups reached 8.9 years in men and 6.0 years in women. In 2020, life expectancy decreased in every group for both sexes, with a lower decrease in the most advantaged group, further increasing the socio-economic gaps to 9.3 years in men and 6.3 years in women. In both years, the undetermined group had the lowest LE, and in 2020, the LE fall was the highest in this group.

Life expectancy in Belgium is at the EU-14 average  

In 2022, life expectancy in Belgium was close to the EU-14 average.

3. Read more

View the metadata for this indicator

SPMA: Standardized Procedures for Mortality Analysis in Belgium

Background

Life expectancy at a given age is the number of years a person of that age can expect to live, on average, based on current mortality conditions. Life expectancy at birth is the most common life expectancy indicator. It is a good indicator of the current level of health in a population across all generations.

However, in case of a temporary health crisis with an impact on mortality, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy has important limitations. Indeed, it is very likely that with the disappearance of the pandemic, mortality conditions will be very different in the near future from those observed during the crisis. Life expectancy in 2020, 2021 and 2022 must therefore be interpreted in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Life expectancy is presented in this report by sex, region, and socio-economic level.

The life expectancy by socio-economic level presented here comes from recent analyses carried out by the UCLouvain demographic institute for the years 2019 and 2020 [3]. Socio-economic groups are constructed based on a composite indicator that takes into account each individual's level of education, socio-professional category, housing conditions, and household income. Each individual obtains a score whose quartiles define four socio-economic groups: disadvantaged, middle low, middle high, and advantaged. A fifth group, called "undetermined", is made up of individuals for whom information was missing for at least two of the four dimensions. Brussels residents and people of African origin are over-represented in this group.

Definitions

EU-14

The EU-14 corresponds to all countries that belonged to the European Union between 1995 and 2004: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. We compare the Belgian health status to that of the EU-14 because these countries have similar socioeconomic conditions. Note: The United Kingdom is not included since 2020.

Life expectancy at birth

Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a newborn can expect to live, if death rates of the reference are considered and do not change in the coming years.

Socio-economic groups
Socio-economic groups are constructed based on a composite indicator that takes into account each individual's level of education, socio-professional category, housing conditions, and household income. Each individual obtains a score whose quartiles define four socio-economic groups: disadvantaged, middle low, middle high, and advantaged. A fifth group, called "undetermined", is made up of individuals for whom information was missing for at least two of the four dimensions. Brussels residents and people of African origin are over-represented in this group.

References

1. Sciensano. Analyse de la surmortalité en 2022. https://www.sciensano.be/fr/coin-presse/analyse-de-la-surmortalite-en-2022 
2. Statbel, 2000-2023. https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/population/life-expectancy-and-life-tables
3. Bourguignon M, Damiens J, Doignon Y, Eggerickx T, Fontaine S, Lusyne P, et al. Variations spatiales et sociodémographiques de mortalité de 2020-2021 en Belgique. L’effet de la pandémie Covid-19, Document de travail 27. Louvain-la-Neuve: Centre de recherche en démographie; 2021.
4. OECD Health Data. https://stats.oecd.org/

Please cite this page as: Sciensano. Life Expectancy and Quality of Life: Life Expectancy, Health Status Report, 15 Jul 2024, Brussels, Belgium, https://www.healthybelgium.be/en/health-status/life-expectancy-and-quality-of-life/life-expectancy 

Details

Last Updated: 03 July 2024

1. Key messages

2. Background

Quality of life is a subjective perception of the individual about his life in his own context and value system, according to his goals and expectations. This perception can be influenced by several factors like physical and mental health but also by the social relationships for example [1]. This domain has been explored here via two different concepts: the Self-Rated Health (SRH) and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) score.

Self-rated health is defined as an individual’s appreciation of its own health status. Despite its subjective nature, self-rated health is a good predictor of people’s future morbidity, disability, healthcare use, and mortality. Information has been drawn here from the percentage of people rating their health as good or very good as reported in the Belgian Health Interview Survey for national results. For the international comparisons, however, the data were derived from the OECD database and were coming from the EU-SILC surveys.

Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) refers to the effects that the health can have on quality of life. Different tools exist to measure HRQoL, we will focus here on the EuroQol 5 Dimensions questionnaire (EQ-5D) [2] as measured in the Belgian Health Interview survey. This tool is allowing to assess HRQoL with 5 dimensions: mobility, self-care, usual activity, pain/discomfort, anxiety/depression. The answers to these dimensions are weighted with preference values drawn from the Belgian population to produce an HRQoL score (on a scale where 1 corresponds to perfect health, and 0 to death). No international comparison is presented for this indicator due to the lack of international data.

3. Self-rated health

Belgium

In 2018, 77% of the population aged 15 years or older rated their health as good or very good. Self-rated health is higher in men (78.7%) than in women (76.2%). This difference is reversed among the younger people but starting from the age group 45-54, men are more frequently rating their health as good or very good than women.

As expected, the prevalence of good self-rated health decreases strongly with age : from 91.8% among the people aged 15-24 rate to only 58.3% of people aged 75 and over.

Trends and regional differences

After the improvements observed between 1997 and 2013, the age-standardized proportions of Belgians reporting good self-rated health remained stable with 78.1% in 2013 and 77.3% in 2018. A higher age-standardized prevalence is observed in Flanders and in Brussels compared to Wallonia and this difference is statistically significant.

Between 1997 and 2013, the percentage of people reporting good health increased in Wallonia (from 68.3% to 74.7%) and in Flanders (from 77.0% to 80.2%). This evolution is not observed anymore in 2018 as the rate stayed stable when compared to 2013: 74% in Wallonia and 79.3% in Flanders. In Brussels however, the percentage of people reporting good health increased between 2013 and 2018, from 73.7% to 77.2%.

Socio-economic differences

An important socio-economic gradient, measured by educational level, is observed in the self-rated health in Belgium. After standardization for age, only 57% of people with a primary education level rate their health positively versus 84% of the people with tertiary education.

International comparison

The prevalence of self-rated health in Belgium ranks favorably among the EU-15 countries since 2005. In 2020, men ranked fifth among the EU-15 while women shared fourth place with Sweden and Austria.

4. Health-related quality of life

Belgium

In 2018, the population aged 15 years or more had an average HRQOL score of 0.79, as measured by the EQ-5D questionnaire. The quality of life score is significantly higher for men (0.82) than for women (0.77).

The HRQoL score is significantly decreasing with age. The decrease is more pronounced in women: between the two extreme age groups, women are losing about 26% of their HRQoL score (from 0.84 to 0.62) while men are losing only 17% (from 0.86 to 0.71).

Trends and regional differences

The average HRQoL score measured by the EQ-5D questionnaire in 2018 (0.79) was lower than in 2013 (0.81).

Despite the important proportion of people reporting problems of pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression in 2013, these proportions have further increased in 2018:

• pain/discomfort was reported by 56 % of the population in 2018 versus 50 % in 2013.
• anxiety/depression was reported by 31 % in 2018 versus 26 % in 2013.

In 2018, the HRQoL score was higher in Flanders (0.82) than in Brussels (0.79) and Wallonia (0.75).

The HRQoL score decreased in Flanders (from 0.83 in 2013 to 0.82 in 2018) and in Wallonia (from 0.78 to 0.75). In Wallonia, the decrease was more substantial in women (0.76 to 0.72) than in men. The gaps between Wallonia and the two other regions have increased between 2013 and 2018.

Socio-economic differences

The average HRQoL score increases with educational level: from 0.65 for people from the lowest educational group to 0.83 for people with a high education level.

5. Read more

View the metadata for Self-rated health

View the metadata for Health-related quality of life

HISIA: Interactive Analysis of Belgian Health Interview Survey

Definitions

EU-15

The EU-15 corresponds to all countries that belonged to the European Union between 1995 and 2004: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. We compare the Belgian health status to that of the EU-15 because these countries have similar socioeconomic conditions.

EuroQol Five Dimensions Questionnaire (EQ-5D)

The EuroQol Five Dimensions questionnaire is a quick and simple instrument that assesses the impact of health status on the quality of life. The EQ-5D comprises two components, i.e., the EQ-5D-5L descriptive system and the EQ-5D visual analogue scale. The descriptive system covers five dimensions (mobility, personal autonomy, daily activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression), each having five possible response levels (ranging from no problems to extreme problems).

EQ-5D score

Combining the reply to each of the items of the EQ-5D questionnaire, a global score is produced and is scaled by two anchor points : 0, representing death, and 100, representing the best imaginable health state. Negative score is possible, representing a health state worse than death.

Health-related quality of life

Quality of Life is an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. It is a broad ranging concept affected in a complex way by the person's physical health, psychological state, personal beliefs, social relationships and their relationship to salient features of their environment. When the quality of life concept is restricted to the effects of health status, it is called health-related quality of life.

Prevalence of good self-rated health

Percentage of people rating their health as good or very good.

Self-rated health

Self-rated health is the individual's subjective assessment of their own health status. To answer the question “How is your general health status?” people have to choose between five categories: very good, good, fair, bad, or very bad.

References

1. World Health Organization, Measuring Quality of Life. http://www.who.int/healthinfo/survey/whoqol-qualityoflife/en/
2. EuroQol Five Dimensions Questionnaire. https://euroqol.org/
3. Health Interview Survey: Subjective Health, Sciensano, 1997-2018. https://www.sciensano.be/en/projects/health-interview-survey
4. Health Interview Survey: Health-Related Quality of Life, Sciensano, 2013-2018. https://www.sciensano.be/en/projects/health-interview-survey
5. Eurostat EU-SILC, 2005-2020. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database

Please cite this page as: Sciensano. Life Expectancy and Quality of Life: Quality of life, Health Status Report, 6 Jan 2022, Brussels, Belgium, https://www.healthybelgium.be/en/health-status/life-expectancy-and-quality-of-life/quality-of-life 

Details

Last Updated: 08 November 2024

• life expectancy

1. Key messages

2. Background

Health expectancy indicators are synthetic population health measurements that combine length and quality of life into a single metric. They include a whole family of indicators, expressed in terms of “life expectancy in a given state of health” (for instance without disability, or in good self-rated health). They are taking into account the number of remaining years expected to be lived in this specific health state at a particular age. The estimation of the Disability-Free Life Expectancy (DFLE) assumes that the current rates of mortality and morbidity will stay unchanged in the future.

The mortality rates are computed based on exhaustive death data from the population. Disability prevalences are usually obtained from population surveys. In this report, we used the Healthy Life Years (HLY) indicator based on the Global Activity Limitation Instrument (GALI) to assess DFLE. We used mainly data from the Belgian Health Interview Survey since they allow regional comparisons. For international comparison, we used data from the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey (EU-SILC), leading to small differences between national or international values.

When estimating DFLE by educational level the calculation process is more complex as the two components of the indicator (mortality and disability rates) need to be calculated by educational level as well.

Since the GALI question is only asked to people aged 15 years and older, we do not compute DFLE at birth. We focused on DFLE at 65 years to allow for international comparisons. DFLE is also presented by educational level at ages 25, 50 and 65.

Disability-Free Life Expectancy (DFLE), life expectancy in good/bad self-rated health, and life expectancy without/with chronic morbidity can also be further explored in an interactive tool. 

3. Disability-Free Life Expectancy

Belgium

In 2018, the Disability-Free Life Expectancy at age 65 (DFLE₆₅) in Belgium was 12.5 years for men and 12.4 years for women. Men and women are thus expected to live respectively 68% and 57% of the remaining life without disability. While women live much longer, they only live slightly longer without disability and as a consequence, they live more years disabled (in absolute number of years and in % of the remaining life).

In the period 2001-2018, the DFLE₆₅ has increased by about 3.7 years for men and 2.7 years for women.

Regional differences

The following regional differences in DFLE₆₅ are observed in Belgium in 2018:

• Among men, Flanders has the highest DFLE followed by Wallonia (-0.7 years) and Brussels (-1.5)
• Among women, Brussels and Flanders have higher DFLE than Wallonia (-2.7)

Socio-economic differences

There are substantial socio-economic inequalities in DFLE at any given age, and these are more pronounced in women. In 2011, the gap in DFLE at age 25 between the low and high educated categories reached 10.5 years in men and 13.4 in women. At age 50, the gap is about 6.7 years in men and 7.7 years in women. At age 65, this gap is still existing and reached 2.5 years in men and 4.6 years in women. In relative terms, gaps are increasing with age in women but not in men.

International comparison

DFLE in men and women is below but close to the EU-15 average. The DFLE in men is 10.5 years in Belgium and 10.6 in the EU-15; in women, DFLE is 10.7 years in Belgium and 10.9 in the EU-15.

4. Read more

View the metadata for this indicator

HISIA: Interactive Analysis of Belgian Health Interview Survey

SPMA: Standardized Procedures for Mortality Analysis

Health expectancies interactive tool

Definitions

EU-15

The EU-15 corresponds to all countries that belonged to the European Union between 1995 and 2004: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. We compare the Belgian health status to that of the EU-15 because these countries have similar socioeconomic conditions.

Disability-Free Life Expectancy at a given age

The Disability-Free Life Expectancy (DFLE) at a given age indicator, also called Healthy Life Years (HLY), measures the number of remaining years that a person of that given age is expected to live without disability. It combines both mortality and ill/health information. The prevalence data are obtained from surveys. Depending on the survey used, small differences can be observed. In this report, the Belgian values used for regional comparisons are based on the HIS data, while international values use the SILC data. 

Disability-Free Life Expectancy by educational level

The Disability-Free Life Expectancy by educational level is generally computed from a compilation of different databases. In this report, it was computed from:

1. a linkage and follow up of the 2011 population census with the National Register, in order to estimate the mortality by educational level
2. the prevalence values of disability from the Health Interview Surveys (2008 and 2013 pooled).

Global Activity Limitation Instrument (GALI)

The Global Activity Limitation Instrument (GALI) is a one question instrument assessing the presence of long-standing activity limitation: "For at least the past 6 months, to what extent have you been limited because of a health problem in activities people usually do? Would you say you have been..." severely limited / limited but not severely / not limited at all? The question was developed by the Euro-REVES project. It is used in the Belgian Health Interview Survey (BHIS) and EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC).

International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)

ISCED is the reference international classification for organizing education programs and related qualifications by levels and areas. It contains 7 categories, from 0 to 6:

• 0: Early childhood education (‘less than primary’)
• 1: Primary education
• 2: Lower secondary education
• 3: Upper secondary education
• 4: Post-secondary non-tertiary education
• 5: Short-cycle tertiary education, Bachelor’s, Master’s
• 6: Doctoral or equivalent level

The educational level was grouped here into 3 categories, according to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED):

• Low: Lower secondary education or less (categories 0, 1, 2),
• Intermediate: Upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education (categories 3, 4),
• High: Tertiary education (categories 5, 6).

References

1. Statbel, 2000-2018. https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/population/life-expectancy-and-life-tables
2. Health Interview Survey: Subjective Health, Sciensano, 1997-2018. https://www.sciensano.be/en/projects/health-interview-survey
3. Renard F, Devleesschauwer B, Van Oyen H, Gadeyne S, Deboosere P (2019) Evolution of educational inequalities in life and health expectancies at 25 years in Belgium between 2001 and 2011: a census-based study. Arch Public Health 77:6. doi: 10.1186/s13690-019-0330-8
4. Eurostat, 2019. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/fr/data/database

Please cite this page as: Sciensano. Life Expectancy and Quality of Life: Health expectancy, Health Status Report, 06 Jan 2022, Brussels, Belgium, https://www.healthybelgium.be/en/health-status/life-expectancy-and-quality-of-life/health-expectancy