National Records of Scotland

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Healthy Life Expectancy in Scotland, 2018-2020

Healthy Life Expectancy in Scotland, 2018-2020

Last update: 3 February 2022National Statistics Icon
Frequency: Annual

Key Findings

In Scotland between 2018-2020:

  • Male healthy life expectancy was 60.9 years.
  • Female healthy life expectancy was 61.8 years.
  • For males, healthy life expectancy at birth was highest in Orkney Islands (71.2 years) and lowest in Inverclyde (54.4 years).
  • For females, healthy life expectancy at birth was highest in Orkney (77.5 years) and lowest in North Ayrshire (54.0 years).

How this compares to previous years:

  • Both males and females experienced a decrease in healthy life expectancy from the previous year (2017-2019).
  • For males, healthy life expectancy at birth increased between 2009-2011 and 2015-2017 but has fallen over the last three estimates.
  • For females, healthy life expectancy at birth remained fairly similar between 2009-2011 and 2014-2016 but has decreased every year since.

How this compares across Scotland:

  • Healthy life expectancy in the most deprived areas of Scotland was more than 24 years lower than in the least deprived areas for both males and females.
  • In the most deprived areas, both males and females spend more than a third of their life in poor health.
  • In the least deprived areas, they both spend around 15% of their life in poor health.

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