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# Healthy working life expectancy at 50 averaged 11 years across 28 countries
- URL: https://www.coios.me/healthy-working-life-expectancy-at-50-averaged-11-years/
- Published: 2026-09-11T17:04:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-11T17:04:35.000Z
- Description: In a 28-country cohort of 175,318 adults aged 50 and over, healthy working life expectancy at 50 was 10.98 years, 9.82 for women and 12.36 for men, with stroke associated with a 5.49-year reduction and higher health spending, governance quality and flexible work arrangements with longer spans.
- Author: Daniel Ryan
- Tags: Power of data, Whether inequalities in health and length of life are widening, and where, European Union, United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, #peer-reviewed, #refines, #item

A multinational prospective cohort study of 175,318 adults aged 50 and over from 28 countries measured healthy working life expectancy (HWLE) using Markov multi-state models, controlling for individual demographics, socioeconomic factors, lifestyle and chronic disease, as well as country-level economic, employment and governance metrics. Mean HWLE at age 50 was 10.98 years (women 9.82, men 12.36). Stroke reduced HWLE by the greatest amount (5.49 years), whilst marriage, higher education and healthy lifestyles extended it; at country level, higher health expenditure, GDP per capita, governance effectiveness and flexible work arrangements were associated with longer HWLE.

*Why it is interesting: Directly quantifies how much healthy working life remains at 50 across countries and identifies modifiable factors—health policy, work flexibility, governance—that shape it, relevant to debates over raising retirement ages.*

Source

[PLoS medicine, 2026-09-10](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004676?ref=coios.me)

DOI

10.1371/journal.pmed.1004676

Type

Peer-reviewed article

Design

Multinational prospective cohort study, 79,833 men and 95,485 women aged ≥50 from 28 countries, follow-up periods varying by cohort

Verdict

Refines prior evidence

Driver

[Whether inequalities in health and length of life are widening, and where](https://www.coios.me/d-health-inequality/)