{"id":3047,"date":"2026-04-28T14:38:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weknow0.co.uk\/?p=3047"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:38:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:38:28","slug":"healthy-life-expectancy-is-unwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weknow0.co.uk\/?p=3047","title":{"rendered":"Healthy life expectancy is unwell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Source: https:\/\/www.ons.gov.uk\/peoplepopulationandcommunity\/healthandsocialcare\/healthandlifeexpectancies\/datasets\/healthstatelifeexpectancyallagesuk<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday an extraordinary thing happened: the news story<\/a> about the UK’s falling healthy life expectancy led the BBC News for a while, ahead of the King’s visit to the US in the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump’s team and the latest twists in the Mandelson affair. And so it should: over the decade 2012\u201314 to 2022\u201324, healthy life expectancy in the UK fell by about 2 years, to 60.7 years for males and 60.9 years for females.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that is just the average. As we can see from what I felt was the most informative graphic from the Health Foundation’s report<\/a>, some of the local authority areas have seen precipitous falls over the same period. Merthyr Tydfil has fallen from 57.6 years to 50.1 years. North Lanarkshire has fallen from 58.3 years to 52.3 years. And in England, Sandwell has fallen from 57.7 years to 51.3 years. In the 2012-14 data, only one region had no local authorities with a healthy life expectancy below the state pension age. By 2022-24, most regions have a healthy life expectancy below 66 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) is defined as the number of remaining years that an individual can expect to live in “very good” or “good” general health. Rates of “very good” and “good” general health by sex and five-year age band are captured from the following survey general health question on the Annual Population Survey (APS) and in the Census 2011 and Census 2021:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is your health in general; would you say it was\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n