Article
Women live more years, but not always with health and happiness
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1In Spain it is calculated that women aged 50 years will spend 56% of their remaining lifetime in good health, whereas for men the figure is 63%.
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2In various European countries, it is observed that the female advantage in terms of longevity is not accompanied by greater happiness.
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3In comparison with men, European women live more years, but in a worse state of health and also with less happiness.

The figure illustrates total life expectancy, life expectancy with good health, and years of life with high levels of happiness at 50 years for men and women. The countries in which life expectancy is higher are not the ones in which people live longer with happiness. The number of years with happiness varies substantially between countries. In the case of Spanish or French women, it is observed that, despite their life expectancies being among the highest, their proportion of years with happiness is lower than in other countries. In contrast, Swedish men have one of the highest life expectancies and a large part of their years are lived with a high level of happiness. Differences in health and happiness are not closely related to their respective life expectancies.