Healthy life expectancy for men in Britain has fallen from 62.9 years in the 2012-14 period to 60.7 years in 2022-24 and from 63.7 to 60.9 years for women over the same timeframe.
According to the Office for National Statistics, this means that the proportion of life a man spends in good health is down from 79% to 77% and, for a woman, from 77% to 73%.
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The stark reality is that men and women in Britain are spending fewer years in good health than they were a decade ago. This sharp decline in Britain’s healthy life expectancy, the amount of time someone spends free of illness or disability, is in sharp contrast to its recent rise in most other rich countries around the world. The fact is that Britain's population’s health is poor, getting worse and not undergoing the same steady improvement for old men seen in countries such as Japan, Norway and Spain.
The decline in Britons’ health in recent years is so significant that, in more than 90% of Britain, people now start suffering from illness before the state pension age of 66.
Dr Jennifer Dixon, the Health Foundation’s Chief Executive said : “These findings reveal a stark truth – the UK’s health is going backwards. The lights on the dashboard are flashing red. We are the most obese country in western Europe, mental ill health has surged to unprecedented levels and more people than ever before are living with chronic health conditions.”
The Office for National Statistics stated in its Report that : 'Obesity – which is leading to more cases of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer and high numbers of deaths caused by alcohol, drugs and suicide help explain the loss of two years of illness-free life'. In addition it said that people’s worsening self-reported health and deep health inequalities between rich and poor are also key factors. Its report found that Britain was one of only five countries where healthy life expectancy has declined, and it had fallen from 14th to 20th in the 21-nation international league table, with only the USA below it.
Britain has deep and widening inequalities in healthy life expectancy. In wealthy Richmond upon Thames, London, the average man enjoys 69.3 years and average woman 70.3 years in good health. Whereas in Blackpool an average man in Blackpool gets just 50.9 years.
The Report found that the UK was one of only five countries where healthy life expectancy has declined, and it had fallen from 14th to 20th in the 21-nation international league table, with only the USA below it.
