Changes in life expectancy in the UK

A tale of two cites – Blackpool and Kensington/Chelsea

[During a week when the fertility rate for England and Wales fell below 1.5 (1.49) for the first time since records began, let us look at the other end of the demographic cycle….]

People in the UK are now living shorter lives. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal that the previous upward trend in life expectancy (LE) has been reversed. Life expectancy between 2020 and 2022 was 78.6 for men and 82.6 for women. It had been 78.7 and 82.7 respectively in the previous 3-year period. In 2012 to 2014, men lived more than 79 years and women 82.8 years. [Figure 1]

Figure 1

Source: ONS

Up to 2010, there had been a steady increase in life expectancy, accelerated under the New Labour governments of Blair/Brown, when those governments put billions of pounds into the NHS. From 2010, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government raised the pension age to 66 in line with this trend. Then life expectancy started to falter, level out and now is in decline.

Causes of the decline in LE

The ONS has cited the influ­enza outbreak in 2015 to 2016 and the Covid pandemic in 2020 to 2021, for the increase in the death rate. There has also been a decline in the quality of public ser­vices, particularly those provided by local authorities, and the rise of longer waiting lists for NHS operations, as well as the decline in the quality of emergency ser­vices such as ambulance waiting times.

The scale of cuts to local govern­ment has been so severe that half of the country’s councils could technically go bankrupt in the next two years – what­ever their political affiliation – and the government has sought to bail them out with an extra £500 million this year so they can continue to provide statutory social care services.

The gap in life expectancy between the better off and the poor is also widening, with stark differences between differ­ent parts of the same town and borough. This is in addition to wide discrepancies between different parts of the UK.

Blackpool v. Kensington and Chelsea

The lowest life expectancy in England is in Blackpool, while one of the highest life expectancies is in the wealthy London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

The difference in life expectancy between the area with the lowest figure in Blackpool and the area with the highest figure in Kensington and Chelsea is enor­mous. Men in Bloomfield ward, the poor­est in Blackpool, on average live until 67.3 – just 15 months after getting their state pension. Meanwhile, a woman living in Belgravia in Kensington and Chelsea can expect to live until she is 94 – 28 years after getting her pension.

In both Blackpool and Kensington/Chelsea there are also big differences in life expec­tancy between different parts of the local authority area. In Blackpool, in the poorest area on the seafront, men on average live until they are 67.3; while in the suburbs of Marton, on the edge of the town, they live until they are 80.5 years – a difference of 13.2 years. For women, the difference is 9.4 years: 73.6 in Claremont ward and 83 in Stanley.

Kensington and Chelsea – which has the highest average life expectancy for women in the country at 87 years and the third highest for men at 83.9 years – has even bigger differences between its wealthier and poorer areas. There is a 17-year difference for men living in Holland Park and the poorer wards of Notting Dale and Courtfield. There is a 15-year difference for women.

The ONS also produces an analysis of how much of people’s lives are spent in good health before they become disa­bled or suffer life-threatening diseases. Healthy life expectancy for both men and women in the country is the lowest in Blackpool, according to the ONS – with healthy life expectancy for women in Blackpool reduced from 57.1 (2016 to 2018) to 54.29 (2018 to 2020).

Perhaps the most striking figure from the ONS is the cause of deaths, which shows a striking difference between men and women in 2018 to 2020. Suicide, poison­ing and injuries killed more than 30% of men in Blackpool, while the largest cause of death for women was cancer.

Over 500 people were admitted to hospital for self-harm in Blackpool – with the comparable figure for Kensington and Chelsea 105. Some 1,403 people were admitted to hospital with alcohol-related conditions in Blackpool – compared to 694 in Kensington and Chelsea. Hospital admissions of victims injured by violence, including sexual violence, was double in Blackpool at 360; the figure was 185 in Kensington and Chelsea.