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Almost 96% of children living in the EU considered in good or very good health
In 2017, 95.9% of children under 16 living in the European Union were considered to be in good or very good general health.
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In 2017, 95.9% of children under 16 living in the European Union were considered to be in good or very good general health. (Shutterstock/Ruslan Shugushev)
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n 2017, 95.9% of children under 16 living in the European Union were considered to be in good or very good general health. According to a study published by Eurostat, 95.2% had no health problems limiting their activity.
Geographical variations exist, however. Romania leads the way in the general state of children's' health, with 99.4% of children under 16 considered in good or very good health. This drops to 90.2% in Portugal. Note that countries such as France (95.1%), Luxembourg (95.1%), the Netherlands (95.3%) and the UK (94.9%) fall below the European average.
When it comes to health problems limiting activities, Italy is the EU's leader, as 99.2% of children have no limitations in activity due to health problems, with 98.8% of children in good or very good health.
Read also: Pneumonia to kill nearly 11 million children by 2030, study warns
Latvia is the only country to achieve double figures in its percentage of children with limitations in activity caused by health problems, with 11.4% experiencing moderate limitations. This is unusually high compared to other EU countries, but is in line with the country's percentage of children in good or very good health, which is relatively low compared to the European average (90.7%), and its percentage of children with no limitations, at 87.6%.
Eurostat observed that the percentage of children in good or very good general health falls slightly with age. While 96.5% of children under five were considered to be in good or very good general health, this dropped to 95.2% for those aged ten to fifteen. There are some exceptions, however, with countries showing the opposite tendency including Ireland (96.4% vs. 96.5%), Hungary (94.9% / 95.5%) and Poland (93.1% / 94.3%).
