Local 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 (62.0 years) and women (62.6 years). Within the region, men’s healthy life expectancy at birth is highest in North Tyneside (61.6 years), while the highest for women is in Northumberland (62.3 years).
- Scotland has the highest within-region inequality in healthy life expectancy at birth for women, with a gap of 23.5 years. For men, the East Midlands has the highest within-region inequality, at 17.2 years. In contrast, the North East (where healthy life expectancy is lower in general) has the lowest gap for both men, at 5.5 years, and women, at 5.4 years.
Healthy life expectancy is below the UK average in every local authority in the North East
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.
- In the East of England and the North West, women’s healthy life expectancy estimates are below the UK average (62.6 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 Northumberland (62.3 years) to the lowest in Sunderland (56.9 years).
- In Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West, men’s healthy life expectancy estimates are below the UK average (62.0 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 North Tyneside (61.6 years) to the lowest in Sunderland (56.1 years).
- The North East has the lowest within-region inequality in healthy life expectancy at birth for both men (5.5 years) and women (5.4 years).
- Scotland has the highest within-region inequality in healthy life expectancy at birth for women. The difference between the highest and lowest local authority estimates is 23.5 years, ranging from 54.0 years in North Ayrshire to 77.5 years in the Orkney Islands.
- For males, the East Midlands has the highest within-region inequality, with a difference between the highest and lowest local authorities of 17.2 years. The lowest is in Nottingham, with a healthy life expectancy of 57.4 years, compared with Rutland, which has the highest healthy life expectancy at 74.7 years.
- 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 2021 from the Office for National Statistics.
Source: Health Foundation analysis of Office for National Statistics, Health state life expectancies, UK, 2018 to 2020; Office for National Statistics, Mid-year population estimates, UK, 2021
