Figures reveal huge inequalities in health and longevity across UK
You’ll not be surprised to see that many of the places with the best longevity are in rural areas. The focus on “healthy lives” rather than simply living longest presages an ongoing debate about the challenges summed up in relation to the closure of care homes reviewed above for rural areas though…. The article tells us
Women in Richmond-upon-Thames in south-west London live 15 years longer in good or very good health than women in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets, according to figures that expose huge inequalities in health and longevity across the UK.
Men in Wokingham, Berkshire, enjoy the longest healthy lives, with 14.1 more years of good or very good health than men in Manchester, who are the unhealthiest in Britain.
An Office for National Statistics report on health expectancies at birth and at age 65 finds that newborn males born between 2010 and 2012 could expect to live 78.8 years and females 82.6.
But only four-fifths of our lives are spent in good health, the report says. On average, men can expect to enjoy 63.2 years in good or very good health (80.3% of their lives) while for women the figure is 64.6 years (78.2% of their lives).
Having reached age 65, men can expect to live another 18.3 years and women 20.8 years. But only half of those retirement years will be spent in good or very good health, placing a huge burden on the NHS and pensions.