Key Summary
- Healthy life expectancy in the UK has fallen to its lowest level since 2013, despite small gains in overall life expectancy.
- Men now spend about 18 years in poor health, women around 22.5 years.
- Public health leaders urge stronger prevention efforts beyond hospitals, tackling housing, work, food and inequality.
The Office for National Statistics shows a seven-month fall in the national healthy life expectancy, the lowest since 2013.
Healthy life expectancy refers to the average number of years a person born today would expect to live in good health.
In 2022 to 2024, men in the UK could expect to spend 60.7 years (77 percent of life) in "good" general health, compared with 60.9 years (73 percent) for women.
This has decline 1.8 and 2.5 years, respectively, compared with the last non-overlapping period (2019 to 2021).
Despite modest increases in life expectancy since 2019 to 2021, healthy life expectancy at birth in the UK, for both males and females, decreased to its lowest level since the time series began in 2011 to 2013.
Men are expected to have 18 years of poor health and women 22.5 years.
The Royal Society of Public Health has urged the government to enhance investments in public health and preventive measures to mitigate prevailing health inequalities.
The society favours the government’s NHS 10-year plan, but said that for a genuine shift to prevention, the approach must extend beyond clinical settings into the places where health is shaped every day.
RSPH deputy chief executive Matthew Bazeley-Bell said, “Until everyone has access to decent housing, a good working environment, healthy food and safe spaces to be active, we cannot expect healthy life expectancy to improve - or the inequalities gap between communities to close.”
