Stark gaps in UK life expectancy between north, south, rich and poor
This article goes over the some familiar old ground and at a high level it is clearly right.
It reveals “A four-year north-south divide in life expectancy at birth for men is revealed in official figures for the UK published on Wednesday. For men in the south-east of England it is 79.4 years, while in Scotland the figure is 75.4, according to the Office for National Statistics.
“For women the gap is slightly less: 83.3 in south-east and south-west England against 80.1 in Scotland. But the differences are even more stark at a local level. In the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, men stand to live 84.4 years and women 89 years.
“That is more than a decade longer than the Glasgow figure of 71.1 years for men and 77.5 for women.”
Beneath the surface however there are significant issues which affect large numbers of asset rich cash poor elderly living in the rural south east and we should not forget that whilst they might have a longer life expectancy, in many cases they don’t have a better quality of life.
This is particularly shown if we reflect on the Richard Layard stuff I am very fond of, about the break down of the correlation between wealth and happiness past a relatively modest level of income.
It is also important to remember in a number of more affluent neighbourhoods the gap between the have and have nots is far more pronounced and stark and there are significant numbers (in absolute terms) of poor people suffering ill health across all communities in rural England.