It is a strange thought that your duration on this planet is dictated, at least to some extent, by the plot of land you were born and settle on.
Just take a look at the statistics of life expectancy in the United Kingdom. The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently released their latest figures on life expectancies up and down the country, providing all kinds of insights into health, social inequality, and geography. The figures are namely based on healthy life expectancy, an estimate of the number of years lived in “Very good” or “Good” general health, which depends on how individuals view their health.
Alongside the data, the ONS released an interactive map that calculates the differences in life expectancy across the UK from 2001 to 2016.
A big take away is that life expectancy at birth differs by 18 years across UK local areas. In Richmond upon Thames (one of the richest areas of West London), life expectancy was highest for males at around 69.9 years. For women, the Orkney Islands were highest at 73 years. The lowest healthy life expectancy was seen in Dundee City in Scotland for males (54.3 years) and in Manchester for females (54.6 years), two areas associated with poverty.
Women continue to live more years in good health than men, despite their healthy life expectancy decreasing by 1.7 months and males increasing by 4.3 months since 2009 to 2011.
The report also noted that the increase in life expectancy has slowed down over the past decade. Still, it is estimated that half of those born in the UK over the past year could expect to still be alive at the age of 82.3 years if male and 85.8 years if female.
“This analysis supports the view that mortality improvements in the UK have slowed somewhat in the second decade of the 21st century,” Chris White, principal research officer at the Office for National Statistics, said in a statement. "This is evidenced by the rate of improvement in life expectancy at birth in the UK falling by 75.3 percent for males and 82.7 percent for females when comparing the first half of the second decade with the first half of the first decade.”
