Trends in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy
About 2 mins
Key points
- In the decade leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, a long-term trend of improving life expectancy stalled in all four UK nations.
- In all four UK nations, life expectancy in 2022–24 has returned to pre-pandemic levels.
- Healthy life expectancy continues to decline since a peak around 2014–16.
People’s life expectancy – a summary measure of years of life based on mortality in a given year – is commonly used as an indicator of the health of a country and its population. Used in combination with other measures such as GDP, it can help to capture the prosperity of a country now and its future potential, and is an important signal of social progress. Healthy life expectancy is also an important indicator, reflecting mortality rates and self-reported health in a given place and time.
This chart shows trends in period life expectancy at birth since 2000–02 and trends in healthy life expectancy since 2011–13.
- Between 2000–02 and 2011–13 all four UK nations saw improvements in life expectancy. Northern Ireland had the smallest growth of 2.5 years, while England had the largest growth at 2.9 years.
- Between 2011–13 and 2017–19 the gains in life expectancy stalled, with life expectancy only increasing by between 0.1 and 0.5 years in the four nations.
- Between 2017–19 and 2020–22, all four nations saw a fall in life expectancy, from a reduction of 0.4 in Northern Ireland to a reduction of 0.6 in England. This fall partly reflects the higher-than-average mortality rates experienced due to COVID-19.
- In all four UK nations, life expectancy in 2022–24 has returned to pre-pandemic levels. In 2022–24 England had the highest life expectancy at 81.3 years, followed by Northern Ireland (80.7 years) and Wales (80.2 years). Scotland had the lowest life expectancy at 71.9 years.
- Healthy life expectancy stayed relatively stable in England, Wales and Northern Ireland between 2011–13 and 2018–20. Scotland, on the other hand, has seen a gradual decline in healthy life expectancy from 62.8 in 2014–16 to 61.7 in 2018–20. All nations show a decline in healthy life expectancy from 2018–20 onwards: from a decrease of 0.9 years in Northern Ireland to a decrease of 2.9 years in Wales.
After stalling life expectancy in the decade prior to the pandemic, this analysis shows a reduction in life expectancy between 2017–19 and 2020–22 with life expectancy return to pre-pandemic levels in 2022–24. The reduction likely reflected higher mortality rates during the pandemic. This also feeds through into healthy life expectancy estimates, making it hard to untangle the changes in health from the changes in life expectancy.
- Life expectancy refers to period life expectancy at birth – calculated using age specific mortality rates of a given area and point in time, and assuming these will stay the same throughout a person’s life.
- Healthy life expectancy measures the number of years an individual is expected to live in good health, based on period life expectancy and a measure of self-rated health.
- Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy values are each calculated as an average of the respective male and female values.
- Healthy life expectancy estimates are only available from 2011–13 onwards.
Source: Office for National Statistics, National Life Tables, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, 2025; Office for National Statistics, Healthy Life Expectancy, UK, 2026.
