Malta registers lowest proportions of long-standing limitations

Malta registered in 2015 as having the lowest proportion of reports of long-standing limitations in activities due to health problems across the EU, according to Eurostat figures.

Only 9.7% of the population in Malta aged 16 or over reported that they felt limited in performing everyday activities, such as studying at school, occupational activities, housekeeping or participating in leisure activities for six months or longer.

Across the EU, 25.3% of the population reported long-standing limitations.

The figures show that women were more likely to report long-standing limitations than men, with a gap of 4.5 percentage points being observed.

Moreover, the reported long-standing limitation tends to decrease with the level of income. Almost a third (31.2%) of the poorest in the EU reported long-standing limitations in usual activities, compared with 17% of the richest.

Malta was followed by Sweden, where 11.1% of the population reported long-standing limitations.

On the other end of the spectrum, the countries to reported the highest proportions were Latvia (38.4%), Portugal (36.1%), Croatia (35.1%), Estonia (35.0%), Austria and Finland (both 33.1%).

In all EU Member States, the share of women reporting long-standing limitations was higher than for men, with the widest gaps being observed in Portugal (41% for women vs. 30.6% for men, or a difference of 10.4 percentage points – pp), Finland (9.4 pp), the Netherlands and Romania (both 8.8 pp) as well as Latvia (8.7 pp).

In this regard, Malta was among the counties who were more balanced, with the gap between genders being 1.8pp, as it was in Ireland. Other countries include Germany (1.1 pp) and Cyprus (1.2 pp).

In every EU Member State except Greece, the share of those reporting some or severe long-standing limitations in usual activities was much higher in the two lowest income groups and decreased progressively as income increased.

The largest difference in the share of the population reporting some or severe long-standing limitations between the poorest part and the richest part of the population was observed in Estonia (51.8% for the poorest vs 18.3% for the richest, or a difference of 33.5 pp), followed by Lithuania (30.7 pp) and Latvia (29.0 pp). In contrast, the smallest differences in the shares of self-reported long-standing limitations were notably observed in Italy (10.9 pp) and Romania (11.3 pp).