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Health Gap Widens: 20 Years Less Good Health
15 Apr
Summary
- Deprived areas see 20 fewer healthy years than affluent ones.
- Males in deprived areas have 49.8 years of good health.
- Women's Health Strategy aims to reverse declining health.
- Wales shows male healthy life expectancy 20.6 years lower.
- Females in deprived areas have just 48.2 years of good health.
Individuals residing in the most deprived areas of England and Wales face a significant disparity in healthy life expectancy, losing approximately 20 years compared to their counterparts in affluent regions. Research from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicates that those in the most deprived areas are living less than 50 years of their lives in good health.
For boys born between 2022 and 2024 in England's poorer areas, the projection is 49.8 years of good health, a stark contrast to the 69.2 years expected in wealthier locales. Females in the most deprived areas face an even shorter healthy lifespan, with only 48.2 years anticipated. Similar trends are observed in Wales, where males and females in deprived regions experience substantially reduced healthy life expectancies.
This data coincides with the Government's updated Women's Health Strategy, which explicitly aims to improve healthy life expectancy in the poorest regions. The strategy commits to reversing the national decline in healthy life expectancy and specifically targets an increase in these disadvantaged areas, aiming to raise healthy life years from 50.5 to at least 61 years. Health advocacy groups have voiced concerns that the goal of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions appears increasingly distant.
