Somerset and Suffolk towns top life-expectancy list for older people
This article tells us:
“A small Somerset village and an arty Suffolk resort have topped a table for UK life expectancy drawn up by a firm of actuaries, which seems to highlight how many years having an occupational scheme can add to your life.
Although official statistics show that a man born today could expect to live to 78.2 years old and a woman until 82.3 years old, the research by Towers Watson shows members of occupational pension schemes are living much longer.
It found male retirees in Hinton St George in Somerset and the Suffolk seaside town of Aldeburgh are both expected to live until they are 88.7 years old, while women in the two towns have a life expectancy of 91.6 years. Frinton-on-Sea, which is at third place in the table, actually has longer life expectancy for women, but shorter for men.
While the ONS figures are based on the whole population, this research was based on a study of 180,000 deaths among 1.5 million members of 51 final salary pension schemes, which would remove the poorest pensioners from the figures. The research looked at life expectancy for those aged 65 after adjusting for differences in pension size and occupational background.”
This is fascinating stuff – I wonder if it is the rural milieu or the occupational pension which can claim primacy in extending the life expectancies of these people? it does make me reflect on yet another downside in terms of our inability to support full pension schemes for people going forward. I wonder how the number of years lived during a recession impacts on life expectancy