A report examined three measures of average life span: life expectancy at birth (mean age at death), median age at death, and modal age at death. The most common age at death in England and Wales in 2010 was 85 for men and 89 for women. Over the previous 50 years (1960–2010) the average life span had increased by around 10 years for a man and 8 years for a woman.
Source: Mortality in England and Wales: Average life span, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Dec
A report said that the proportion of people's lives spent in very good or good general health was increasing in England and Wales but, on the whole, falling in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Healthy life expectancy increased overall by more than two years in the period 2008–2010 compared with 2005–2007. Males were spending a greater proportion of their lives in favourable health compared with females: but in recent years this gap had narrowed as the health of females had improved more rapidly than that of males. Males and females could expect to spend more than 80 per cent of their lives in very good or good general health from birth, falling to around 57 per cent at age 65.
Source: Health Expectancies at Birth and at Age 65 in the United Kingdom, 2008–2010, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Aug
A report said that there was a clear north-south divide in estimates of life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy. For a man living in the north east, from the age of 16 the average expected disability-free years were 45.3, whereas for a man in the south east it was 51.5 years. The impending increase in the state pension age was therefore likely to have different implications for the length of retirement that was spent disability-free in different regions.
Source: Disability-Free Life Expectancy, Sub-National Estimates for England, 2007-09, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report | ONS press release
Date: 2012-Jun
A report said that around one-third of babies born in 2012 in the United Kingdom were expected to survive to celebrate their 100th birthday. More than 95,000 people aged 65 in 2012 were expected to celebrate their 100th birthday in 2047. The total number of centenarians was projected to rise from 14,500 in 2012 to 110,000 in 2035.
Source: What Are the Chances of Surviving to Age 100?, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report | BBC report
Date: 2012-Mar
New data was published on health inequalities and the social determinants of health for the 150 'upper tier' local authority areas in England. Although life expectancy had improved between 2007-2009 and 2008-2010 for most areas, inequalities within them had also increased. The amount by which the gap in life expectancy varied between the wealthiest neighbourhoods and the most deprived had risen in the majority of the local authorities, for both men (104/150) and women (92/150).
Source: Press release 15 February 2012, Institute of Health Equity (University College, London)
Links: IHE press release | Statistical table | Guide to indicators | 4Children press release | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Feb