Statistics Portugal - Web Portal
Official Portal - Statistics Portugal
      
 

About 35% of the population with limitation in carrying out activities, the highest value since 2016
Income and Living Conditions
Health status - 2021
About 35% of the population with limitation in carrying out activities, the highest value since 2016
25 February 2022

Summary

In 2021, 50.2% of the population rated their health status as good or very good, 1.1 pp less than in the previous year (51.3%), in contrast to the growing trend of this indicator that has been verified since 2014. People who had completed secondary or post-secondary education (66.2%) and higher education (74.1%) had the highest proportions of positive health status assessment in that year.

The comparison of health status assessments and at-risk-of-poverty status for 2016 to 2021 confirm the existence of a negative association in the case of positive assessments (the proportion of positive health assessments is lower when in poverty), and positive in the case of other assessments (the proportions of assessments as fair or as bad or very bad are higher when in poverty).

The prevalence of chronic disease or longstanding health problems affected 43.9% of the population aged 16 years or older in 2021, 0.7 pp more than in 2020 and 2.7 pp more than in 2019.

In 2021, 34.9% of the population aged 16 years or older reported having some limitation in performing activities due to health problems, and of this, 9.6% reported a severe limitation. The two indicators recorded an increase in relation to previous years, in both cases reaching the highest proportions since 2016.

Data collected in 2021 also show that 5.7% of people aged 16 and over could not meet the needs of medical care; and 13.1% of dental care needs.

More than 1/4 of the population reported the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health.


Press release
Download the document PDF (304 Kb)
Tables
Excel Excel (67 Kb)
ZIP CSV (8 Kb)