More than half of the Portuguese considers to have good health

More than half (53.6%) of the Portuguese population evaluated, in 2024, its health with “very good or good”, the INE said on Friday. This is the highest value of the last 20 years.

Data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) also point out that the percentage of people who negatively evaluated their health (12% in 2024) was the lowest since the beginning of the series.

The number represents a reduction of 1.5 percentage points (PP) for 2023 and significantly lower than those from 2004 to 2014 (between 18% and 21%).

The data, which are included in the publication “Health Statistics”, released by INE on the occasion of World Health Day, which is marked on April 7, state that it is in the region of Greater Lisbon that the largest proportion of 16 or older people with a positive perception of their health status (60%).

Here are the Azores (58.3%) and the Algarve (57.9%), while the Center region registered, in 2024, the lowest frequency of the population with positive self-learning (46.6%), followed by West and Tagus Valley and the Autonomous Region of Madeira, both below 50%.

The data indicate that in 2024, 42.3% of the population with 16 or more years reported having chronic disease or extended health problem, less 2.2 pp than in the previous year (44.5%). This condition was more frequent in women (45.9%) than in men (38.2%) and much more affected the elderly population: 68.1% by comparison with 32.2% of the population under 65 years.

The INE marks a decrease in this indicator in both sexes and age groups.