Estonian children's general state of health among worst in EU

LUXEMBOURG - Approximately 95 percent of children in the European Union are in either good or very good health, the general state of health among Estonian children, however, is among the worst in the union along with those of Latvia and Portugal, it appears from data available from Eurostat for 2017.

In 2017, more than 95 percent of children in the European Union (EU) were considered to be in good or very good general health. This percentage changes only slightly by age group, from 96.5 percent for those aged under five, to 95.9 percent for those aged five to nine and 95.2 percent for those aged ten to fifteen. The percentage of children whose general health was considered to be bad or very bad was under 1 percent for all age groups.

In 2017, the percentage of children aged under five considered to be in good or very good health ranged from 92.4 percent in Estonia to more than 99 percent in Bulgaria, Malta, Romania and Italy.

Among children aged five to nine, the proportion of those considered to be in good or very good health was lowest

in Portugal, 89.3 percent, and Latvia, 91.2 percent, and highest in Romania, 99.8 percent, Cyprus, 98.9 percent, Italy, 98.8 percent and Greece, 98.7 percent. In Estonia, the proportion was 93.7 percent.

Among those aged ten to fifteen, the percentage considered to be in good or very good health varied from below 90 percent in Latvia, 88.0 percent, Portugal, 88.7 percent, and Estonia 89.6 percent, to above 98 percent in Romania, 99.1 percent, Italy, 98.4 percent and Bulgaria, 98.2 percent.

Among Estonian children aged under 16, on average, the share of those whose health is bad or very bad is 1.2 percent, the proportion of children in fair health is 6.9 percent and 91.9 percent are in good or very good health.