evidence: Healthy life years statistics [...] In the EU, the number of healthy life years at birth in 2022 was 62.8 years for women and 62.4 years for men, a gender gap of 0.4 years. Life expectancy in 2022 was 83.3 years for women and 77.9 years for men, a gap of 5.4 years. As the gender gap was considerably smaller in terms of healthy life years than it was for overall life expectancy, most of the additional years of life expectancy for women tend to be lived with activity limitations. Therefore, men tended to spend a greater share (80.1%) of their somewhat shorter lives free from activity limitations than women (75.4%). [...] Healthy life years also monitor health as a productive or economic factor. An increase in healthy life years is 1 of the main goals of the EU's health policy, given that this would not only improve the situation of individuals (as good health and a long life are fundamental objectives of human activity) but also lead to lower public healthcare expenditure and likely increase the possibility that people continue to work later into life. If healthy life years increase more rapidly than life expectancy, then not only are people living longer, but they are also living a greater share of their lives free from health problems.