These results are correlated with the overall wealth of the different countries as measured by GDP and the average level of health spending by the countries on older people. In general, a strong GDP and higher health spending are associated with more Healthy Life Years at age 50.

For men, long periods out of work (over 12 months) and poorer education were equally responsible for fewer Healthy Life Years.

The disparities observed are even stronger among the last ten countries to have joined the EU. For most of these countries, the age of retirement is higher than or coincides with the average age at which people can hope to live without health problems.

Carol Jagger commented: “Without an improvement in the state of health of older people, it will be difficult to raise the retirement age or bring more older workers into the workforce for certain EU countries.”

Partner institutions in the research project are: the University of Leicester; the French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED); The Scientific Institute of Public Health, Belgium; the Erasmus Medical Center, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands; and the French Institute of Health and Medical Research, (Inserm)