Greek and Maltese nationals aged forty-five to sixty-four living in Greece and Malta, respectively, ranked at the top of the European Union in terms of positive self-perception of their health, according to Eurostat’s latest survey.
The survey, which took off two years ago, examined the state of self-perceived health of three different groups of citizens residing in each EU country, namely that of nationals, EU citizens excluding nationals, and non-EU citizens.
While in the sixteen to forty-four year age group there were no significant differences recorded in the averages among the groups regarding a bad or very bad state of self-perceived health, significant differences emerged in the the forty-five to sixty-four year old demographic in most EU countries, with few exceptions.
Eurostat data from 2020 suggested that only 4.6 percent of Greek nationals aged forty-six to sixty-four living in Greece perceived their health as being in a bad or very bad state while in Malta, 3.7 percent of nationals perceived their health as such. In Italy, 4.7 percent of nationals deemed their health to be in either a bad or especially bad state.
On the contrary, the highest shares of nationals aged forty-five to sixty-four who self-perceived of their health as bad or very bad in 2020 were recorded in Croatia (14.8 percent), Slovakia (13.2 percent), and Germany (12.6 percent).
Greeks have the smallest discrepancies in self-perceived health in EU
The same survey also showed that Greece was the EU country with the smallest discrepancies in self-perceived health among the three groups of forty-six to sixty-four year old individuals residing in the country.
These discrepancies appeared to be significantly higher in most EU member states, showing a vast gap in the self-perceived state of health among different groups of citizens belonging to the same forty-six to sixty-four year old demographic in those countries.
An earlier study by Eurostat, published in June, suggested that Greeks rank in the top three EU member states in terms of “healthy life years,” as well, which is a paradox for a population that bears one of the highest smoking and obesity rates on the continent.
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