East Riding JSNA

Health and Wellbeing Assessment in the East Riding

Healthy Life Expectancy

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 different areas of the United Kingdom

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.

Click here to view the key points about the healthy life expectancy update for 2022-24 (national perspective)

Key points:

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

  • People now spend less than three-quarters of their lives in good health:
    • Women: 73%
    • Men: 77%

  • In England (2022–2024):
    • Men: 60.9 years in good health
    • Women: 61.3 years in good health
    • This is a 7‑month drop in one year and a much larger fall since the pandemic (22 months for men, 29 months for women).

  • The South East has the highest healthy life expectancy, while the North East has the lowest.

  • Regional gaps are growing, particularly for women.
    • For example, healthy life expectancy in Blackpool is around 51 years, compared with around 70 years in Richmond upon Thames.
    • At local authority level, inequalities are extreme: there is almost a 20‑year gap between the healthiest and least healthy areas.

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.

Figure 1. Healthy Life Expectancy within the United Kingdom. Source: ONS

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 by national area deprivation

In April 2026, ONS produced an insight about how healthy life expectancy varied between areas within England and Wales, based on their deprivation levels (for the period 2022-24). The original webpage can be viewed here: Healthy life expectancy by national area deprivation (2022–2024).

Key points from the insight include:

  • Life expectancy in England remains strongly patterned by deprivation, with a gap of around 10 years for males and 8 years for females between the most and least deprived areas.
  • Healthy life expectancy shows much larger inequalities than life expectancy, with people in the most deprived areas expected to live around 19–20 fewer years in good health than those in the least deprived areas.
  • In 2022–2024, people living in the most deprived areas of England could expect to spend only around two‑thirds of their lives in good health, compared with around four‑fifths in the least deprived areas.
  • Healthy life expectancy has declined across all deprivation deciles since 2019–2021, with larger reductions in more deprived areas, despite modest recent increases in total life expectancy.
  • Inequalities in both life expectancy and healthy life expectancy remain worse than before the COVID‑19 pandemic, indicating that recovery in longevity has not yet translated into recovery in years lived in good health.
  • The findings underline that health inequalities in England are driven primarily by differences in years lived in good health rather than length of life alone, reinforcing the importance of prevention and action on the social determinants of health.

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.

Further information:

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