How long and how healthily we live depends on many things: care, lifestyle, work and income. Here you can see how many years we live on average and how many of them in good health, how many deaths were avoidable, whether people get the care they need, and how much we spend on care.
A government is never the only cause of how a figure develops. Many figures only respond to policy years later, and they also depend on the world economy, European rules and the policies of the regions and communities.
Life expectancy
How old do we live to on average?
82.4 years
Belgium, 2024
That is higher than the EU average (81.5 years).
In 2014 it was 81.1 years.
How long a baby born this year will live on average, if the health of the population stays as it is now.
Definition and source
Definition
Average number of years a newborn will live at that year's mortality rates.
Living long is one thing, living healthily another. The difference with life expectancy is the years we live on average with limitations. The figure is based on what people themselves answer in a survey.
Definition and source
Definition
Number of years a newborn can expect to live without limitations in daily life due to health problems.
This is what people themselves answer in a European survey. Among people on low incomes this figure is usually higher than average.
Definition and source
Definition
Share of inhabitants aged 16 and over who say they needed a medical examination or treatment but did not get it, because it was too expensive, too far away or the waiting list was too long.
onvervulde_zorg.csv (handy for reuse; the source itself remains the reference)
Avoidable mortality
How many people die early from something avoidable?
196 per 100,000
Belgium, 2023
That is lower than the EU average (238 per 100,000).
In 2013 it was 249 per 100,000.
Think of lung cancer from smoking, road accidents or a treatable infection. The figure says something about prevention and the quality of care together.
Definition and source
Definition
Deaths before the age of 75 that could have been avoided through prevention or through timely, good-quality care, per 100,000 inhabitants (age-standardised).