Local authority healthy life expectancy at birth by region and sex
About 2 mins
Key points
- In the North East, every local authority’s healthy life expectancy at birth is below the UK average for men (60.7 years) and women (60.9 years). Within the region, healthy life expectancy at birth is highest in Newcastle upon Tyne (women 60.7 years and men 60.3 years).
- Scotland has the highest within-region inequality in healthy life expectancy at birth with a gap of 21.8 years for women and 20 years for men. In contrast, the North East (where healthy life expectancy is lower in general) has the lowest gap for both men, at 8.2 years, and the East Midlands and North East have the lowest gaps for women, both at 9.5 years.
Healthy life expectancy – a summary metric reflecting mortality rates and self-reported health in a given place and time – is commonly used as an indicator of the health of a country as a whole and to highlight inequalities across different areas within a country.
This chart shows healthy life expectancy at birth, in years, for each local authority in the UK, grouped by region. The size of the bubbles reflects the size of the population in each area, with larger bubbles reflecting larger populations. Regions are ordered by the percentage of local authorities with life expectancy below the UK average.
- For women, in the East Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West, healthy life expectancy estimates are below the UK average (60.9 years) in at least two-thirds of local authorities. In the North East, it is lower than the UK average in every local authority, ranging from the highest in Newcastle upon Tyne (60.7 years) to the lowest in Hartlepool (51.2 years).
- For men, in East Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West, healthy life expectancy estimates are below the UK average 60.7 years in at least two-thirds of local authorities. In the North East, it is lower than the UK average in every local authority, ranging from the highest in Newcastle upon Tyne (60.3 years) to the lowest in Hartlepool (52.1 years).
- The North East has the lowest within-region inequality in healthy life expectancy at birth for men (8.2 years) and the North East and East Midlands have the lowest within-region inequality for women (9.5 years). Both these regions have many local authorities with healthy life expectancy below the UK average.
- Scotland has the highest within-region inequality in healthy life expectancy at birth for women and men. For women, the difference between the highest (Orkney Islands) and lowest (North Lanarkshire) local authority estimates is 21.8 years for women and 20 years for men.
- 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. Period life expectancy is 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.
- Local area figures for healthy life expectancy at birth use upper-tier local authorities for England, local authorities for Wales, council areas for Scotland and local government districts for Northern Ireland.
- The size of the bubbles represents the total population in each local authority as measured by the mid-year population estimates for 2024 from the Office for National Statistics.
- Figures are not available for the City of London and Isles of Scilly due to small numbers of death and population.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Healthy life expectancy, UK, 2022–24, Office for National Statistics, Estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, 2024.
