Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Life expectancy in the UK has stopped improving

The life expectancy of women living in the poorest areas of England fell by 100 days in recent years. Between 2012-2014 and 2015-2017, female life expectancy in the richest areas increased by 84 days, widening the gap between rich and poor to half a year.
Women in the most deprived areas in England can expect to live for 78.7 years, while women in the least deprived areas can live for 86.2 years - a gap of 7.5 years.
This gap in female life expectancy has widened between 2012-2014 and 2015-2017, with a particularly noticeable drop in life expectancy among poorer women. Those women living in the most deprived areas can expect to live the shortest lives and live the smallest number of healthy years.

For men, the life expectancy gap is greater - nearly a decade, or 74 years in poorer areas compared to 83.3 years in richer ones.
But there has been virtually no fall in life expectancy among poor men, although there was a significant increase in the most affluent men.
In Wales, the gap in life expectancy between the least and most deprived areas was 8.8 years for males and 7.6 years for females in 2015 to 2017.
The changes in life expectancy since 2012-2014 were not statistically significant, the ONS said.
In Scotland, the rise in life expectancy is grinding to a halt, according to a recent report.




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