Men’s life expectancy has fallen by half a year, while women’s has fallen by three months since the Covid pandemic, new official figures show.
Men in England and Wales will live to be 79 years old, while women will live to be 83 on average, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed today.
According to the data, that’s 26 fewer weeks for men and 13 fewer weeks for women than before the pandemic.
Despite the increase in life expectancy over the last 40 years, due to advances in healthcare, living and working conditions, sSince 2011, it had begun to stabilize.
While experts primarily blamed Covid for the recent decline, they also pointed the finger at rising rates of heart disease. cancer and diabetes.
Between 2021 and 2023, life expectancy at birth in England and Wales was 79 years for men and 83 years for women, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed today.
More than two years ago, the government committed to increasing health life expectancy by five years by 2035.
However, the latest data suggests that England and Wales may be far from reaching this target.
But, compared to the period 2020-2022, the latest estimate of life expectancy is 13 weeks longer for men (78.8 years) and 11 weeks longer for women (82.8 years). During this time, mortality rates were heavily affected by the Covid pandemic.
Experts have suggested that, in addition to the Covid pandemic, decreased quality of life could also be to blame. The data also covers the period when Britain was plunged into a cost of living crisis, which experts say increased the risk of malnutrition due to high food and energy prices.
These ONS figures, the latest available, cover the average life expectancy, meaning some people will live less and others much longer.
Since 2011, life expectancy has begun to stabilize and experts also attribute rising death rates to the Covid pandemic, as well as rising rates of heart disease, cancer and diabetes (Source: ONS)
Previously, charities warned that while life expectancy figures had recovered slightly since the sharp drop in 2020, the recovery from the pandemic had not been as strong as expected.
They pointed to the prevalence of diseases such as heart disease and diabetes that helped curb further increases in life expectancy.
Referring to ONS figures published in January 2024, Veena Raleigh, senior researcher at The King’s Fund, said: “Although life expectancy has recovered somewhat since the sharp fall in 2020 when the pandemic hit, it has not had the recovery that could have been expected. once the worst of the pandemic had passed, pointing to deeper problems with the nation’s health and the resilience of the health care system.
“Much of the heavy burden of illness and death in the UK is caused by preventable conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and diabetes.”
How long you are expected to live also depends on where you live in the UK.
There is about a year difference in life expectancy between England and Wales, and data shows that life expectancy at birth between 2021 and 2023 will be 79.1 years for men and 83.0 years for women in England and 78.1 years for men and 82.0 years for women in Wales. .
ONS data also shows that women in the wealthy London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea enjoy the highest average life expectancy at age 65 in England at 88.3 years.
They were followed by those in the South Hams district of Devon (88.2 years) and Winchester in Hampshire (88 years).
It is estimated that people aged 65 will live 18.6 years longer for men and 21.1 years longer for women between 2021 and 2023 in England and Wales.
Hart’s men in Hampshire had the highest life expectancy at 86.2 years, followed by those in south Cambridgeshire (85.51).
East Devon and Winchester came third with a life expectancy of 85.46 years.
By contrast, the Manchester men had the lowest average life expectancy, just 80.8 years, about six years less than those in Hart.
This was followed by those in Barking and Dagenham, east London, at 81 years, and Liverpool and Blackpool were third lowest with just a fraction more, at 81.04 years.
Women in Blaenau Gwent, south-east Wales, had the lowest average life expectancy among 65-year-olds, 82.8 years, again around six years less than those in top-performing areas.
They were followed by women from Manchester (83.2 years) and those from Knowsley, Merseyside (83.3 years).
But the data above refers to adults currently in their 60s, and the picture is bleaker for children born today.
A child born in Hart between 2020 and 2022 can expect to reach age 83 (83.7) and, while it is the highest birthday on record, it is three years behind what a man who is 65 years old at the same time would be expected to live. time in that area.
Meanwhile, a child born in Blackpool will probably only live to be 73 (73.41), a difference of more than a decade compared to Hart.
ONS estimates are based on a figure called period life expectancy.
This is a hypothetical measure that assumes that the death rates recorded in an area between 2020 and 2022 apply throughout a person’s lifetime.
It uses death records in the period 2020 to 2022 for each age group, the probability of death and the number of surviving people in each group to arrive at this figure.
The life expectancy of older adults has also slowed over the past decade.
People aged 65 are estimated to have lived 18.6 years longer for men and 21.1 years longer for women between 2021 and 2023 in England and Wales.
That’s five weeks more than between 2018 and 2020.
However, life expectancy at age 65 also remains below pre-pandemic levels of 18.8 years for men and 21.2 years for women between 2017 and 2019.
For people aged 90, life expectancy was 3.9 years for men and 4.6 years for women between 2021 and 2023.
Improvements in life expectancy at age 90 have been low for several years.
But previous improvements in mortality over many decades and a historic peak in the number of births, especially between 1920 and 1921, have resulted in more people reaching very old ages in recent years, the ONS explains.
