Commenting on today's ONS data,
Veena Raleigh, Senior Fellow, The King's Fund,
said:
‘Healthy life expectancy[1] in England in
2021-23, at 61.5 years for males and 61.9 years for females, is
still well below the level of a decade ago, by 1.5 years in males
and 2 years in females. This in part reflects the impact of the
early years of the pandemic when healthy life expectancy fell
sharply.
‘The new data also shows that the proportion of years spent in
‘good' general health has therefore fallen from 79.5% to 77.8% in
males and 77% to 74.5% in females since 2011-13, a period during
which life expectancy had shown little improvement.
‘The data shows the gross and persistent inequalities between
local areas with high and low healthy life expectancies. For
example, the number of years people are expected to live in good
health is 18 years lower for males and females living in
Blackpool, one of the most deprived areas, compared to Richmond,
one of the least deprived areas. The gap in healthy life
expectancy between the highest and lowest ranked areas in England
has also grown, by 22% for males and 17% for females since
2011-13. These geographical inequalities are reflected also in
life expectancy, and exemplify the catastrophic impact that
deprivation has on health across the country more
generally.
‘While this data reflects the impact of the pandemic, both life
expectancy and healthy life expectancy in England were stalling
before Covid-19 struck. There has now been a prolonged period
during which the health of England's population has not just
failed to improve, it has deteriorated. This shows how
challenging it will be for the government to achieve its ambition
of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest
and poorest regions in England. Poor health is also a serious
impediment to economic growth, with an estimated 2.8m people
unable to work due to ill health.
‘Turning this ship around will require concerted cross-government
action and investment to improve population health and tackle the
socio-economic factors driving health inequalities that scar the
nation and blight the lives of individuals, families and
communities.'
Ends.
Notes to editors
[1] ONS defines healthy life
expectancy as a measure of the average number of years a person
would expect to live in good health based on contemporary
mortality rates and prevalence of self-reported good health.
