Eurostat: 21% of of Cypriots above 65 report bad or very bad health

In 2023, a percentage of 28% of non-EU citizens living in the EU aged 65 years or over perceived themselves to be in bad or very bad state of health.

By contrast, only 16.6% of older citizens from other EU countries and 18.3% of nationals reported such state of bad health, according to data released by Eurostat.

In Cyprus in 2023, the percentage of non-EU citizens aged 65 years or over reporting that they were in bar or very bad health stood at 10.2%, lower than the EU average. The share of older citizens from other member states living in Cyprus that shared this perception stood at 17.7%, slightly above the EU average. Among Cypriot citizens, the corresponding share stood a little above the EU average, at 21.0%.

Cyprus showed lower percentages of people perceiving themselves to be in bad or very bad health compared to the EU average in the 45 - 64 age group. More specifically, these shares stood at 3.6% of non-EU citizens from this age group (11.0% in the EU), 5.0% of citizens of other EU countries (9.7% in the EU) and 5.5% of nationals (8.3% in the EU)

For people aged 16 - 44 years old, the different citizenship groups all reported very low numbers (below 5%) of bad or very bad state of self-perceived health. Shares for Cyprus were lower, below 1.5%.

When it comes to differences between the sexes in the EU, the share of women who had a bad or very bad self-perception of health among non-EU citizens was 8.5% compared with 7.3% for men. For nationals, the number for women was 9.8% compared with 8% for men, while for citizens of another EU country, men had a higher self-perception of bad or very bad health (7.8%) than women (7.4%).

In Cyprus, the share of men among non-EU citizens who had a bad or very bad self-perception of health stood at 3.0% compared with 1.3% among women. For nationals, the percentage for women was larger (7.1% compared to 6.4% for men). Among citizens of other EU countries, men had a higher percentage (3.9%) compared with women (1.3%)

The EU countries with the highest shares of non-EU citizens in a bad or very bad state of self-perceived health across all ages above 16 years were Latvia (28%), Estonia (17.5%) and France (14.3%). The lowest shares were recorded in Italy (1.5%), followed by Malta and Bulgaria (both 1.8%).

Cyprus had a low percentage in the overall share of citizens from third countries (2.0% compared to 7.9% in the EU), as well as in the category of citizens from other member states (2.6% compared to 7.6% in the EU) and the category of nationals (6.8% compared with 8.9% in the EU).

(Source: CNA)