Healthy Life Expectancy - East Riding JSNA

Introduction

There are a number of different types of life expectancy, which include life expectancy at birth, life expectancy at 65, healthy life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy to name just a few examples. Life expectancy is a key indicator used to demonstrate inequalities in health, with significant variations in life expectancy recorded between different communities within the East Riding. All types of life expectancy are calculated for males and females separately.

This page concentrates on ‘healthy life expectancy’: an estimate of the average number of years a person can expect to live in “good” or “very good” health, based on current mortality rates and self‑reported general health. It goes beyond life expectancy by taking account of quality of life as well as length of life, it reflects people’s lived experience of health and long‑term conditions, not just diagnosed disease.

Healthy Life Expectancy within the UK

In 2022-24 Healthy life expectancy has fallen in over 80% of UK local areas compared with 2019–2021, and in every region of England.

In England, healthy life expectancy was 61.3 years for women and 60.9 years for men, meaning people could expect to spend less than three-quarters of their lives in good health overall.
Geographical inequalities remain substantial. The South East has the highest healthy life expectancy and the North East the lowest, while the gap between the healthiest and least healthy local authority areas is almost 20 years.
These differences are strongly associated with deprivation. Life expectancy is around 10 years lower for males and eight years lower for females in the most deprived areas than in the least deprived, while the corresponding gap in healthy life expectancy is around 19–20 years. People in the most deprived areas can expect to spend only around two-thirds of their lives in good health, compared with around four-fifths in the least deprived areas.
Although total life expectancy has shown modest recent improvement, healthy life expectancy has fallen across all deprivation groups and inequalities remain wider than before the COVID-19 pandemic. This indicates that recovery in longevity has not translated into more years lived in good health.

The ONS reports that healthy life expectancy in the UK has fallen to its lowest level since records began, The decline has continued since the pandemic and health inequalities between regions and communities are widening.

The interactive map below is provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and allows viewers to see healthy life expectancy estimates for males and females. Different areas of the UK can be selected by either clicking on the map or selecting an area of interest by clicking in the box with a downward facing arrow. Viewers of the map can zoom into an area by either using the wheel on their mouse or using the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ buttons. When an area is selected the map will provide a comparison between healthy life expectancy in 2011-23 compared to 2022-24. Darker areas of the map indicate a higher healthy life expectancy.

For the East Riding of Yorkshire, healthy life expectancy in 2022-24 is reported to be 59.5 years for both men and women (compared with 60.9 years for men in England overall and 61.3 years for women).

Healthy Life Expectancy within the United Kingdom by local authority area. Source: ONS

Healthy life expectancy reduced in the East Riding between in 2019-21 and 2022-24, by 5.3 years for men and 6 years for women. Use the interactive tool below to see the differences in healthy life expectancy by local authority area.

Figure 2. Change in healthy life expectancy at birth by sex, local areas of the UK, between 2019 to 2021 and 2022 to 2024. Source: ONS

Healthy life expectancy: the East Riding compared to other areas

Between 2011-13 and 2019-21 the East Riding largely had a higher healthy life expectancy than the national average for males and females. However, since 2018-20, the East Riding healthy life expectancy has reduced at a faster rate than England and as of the latest data point the East Riding is now lower. East Riding male healthy life expectancy in 2022-24 was 59.5 years (compared to 60.9 years for England), whilst East Riding female healthy life expectancy was also 59.5 years (compared to 61.3 for England).

Compared to the rest of the local authorities within the Yorkshire and the Humber region, the East Riding recorded the 4th highest healthy life expectancy for both males and females. North Yorkshire was the only local authority with a significantly higher healthy life expectancy than the England average.

Healthy life expectancy by MSOA area (2019-23)

Healthy Life Expectancy by MSOA within England and Wales. Source: ONS

East Riding MSOA healthy life expectancy (2019-23)

Further information

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