This article compares the self reported health of a sample of 9854 Spanish and Portuguese adolescents aged 11-15 years using an integrated measure of health, which takes account of positive and negative factors that affect overall feelings of health and wellbeing. This improved measure supports the emergence of health agendas that aim to make wellbeing improvements in populations through a combination of both the promotion of positive protective factors and the need to deal with those risk factors that inhibit individuals, communities and populations to attain good health.