Population Growth and Healthy Life
Expectancy
Last updated: October 2011
The EU15 is comprised of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Over the period 1998 to 2009 the population of the EU15 grew at a higher rate than the population of Scotland. However, Scotland's population growth rate has risen considerably since 2003. Between 2009 and 2010, Scotland's population grew by 0.54%, whilst the population of the EU15 grew by 0.36%. In the previous period, 2008 to 2009, the population growth rates for Scotland and the EU15 were 0.49% and 0.50%, respectively. The Scottish Government has set a target to match average European (EU15) population growth over the period from 2007 to 2017, supported by increased healthy life expectancy in Scotland over this period.
Annual Population Growth, EU15 and Scotland, 1998-99 to 2009-10
Source: Eurostat, and NRS
Life expectancy, the number of years that a person can expect to live on average, is a single measure of population health which is used to monitor public health, health inequalities, the outcome of health service interventions and to allocate resources.
Life expectancy at birth for Scots continues to improve, and recent trends show a slight narrowing of the gap between males and females to 4.5 years in 2009 (males now having life expectancy at birth of 75.8 years compared with 80.3 years for females). However, life expectancy (LE) in Scotland remains low compared with most Western European countries. In terms of quality of life, healthy life expectancy (HLE) at birth (based on a combination of life expectancy and self-assessed health (SAH)) has also increased over the longer term. The gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy is greater for women than for men, suggesting that they spend more years of life in poor health.
Life Expectancy and Healthy Life Expectancy at Birth, 1980 to 2009
Source: ISD Scotland
The 2009 HLE estimates were lower than the 2008 estimates due to a change in methodology to align with the European Union. A partial back series has been calculated to show the above comparisons.
Publication
Mid-Year Population
Estimates
Europe in Figures (Published by Eurostat)
Healthy life expectancy in
Scotland