News Release
Life Expectancy Figures for Scotland
5 September 2006
Life expectancy at birth for Scotland is 74.2 years for males and 79.2 years for females, according to the General Register Office for Scotland.
The latest statistics have been supplied by Council and NHS Board areas for the period 2003-2005.
Registrar General for Scotland, Duncan Macniven said:
"While it is encouraging that peoples’ life expectancy at birth across Scotland is increasing, there are still large differences between areas."
The key points in the 'Life Expectancy for Administrative Areas within Scotland, 2003 - 2005' report are:
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The Council area with the highest male life expectancy was East Dunbartonshire (77.7 years), 7.8 years more than Glasgow City, the lowest at 69.9 years;
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Orkney Islands had the highest life expectancy for females (81.4 years), 4.7 years more than Glasgow City (lowest at 76.7 years);
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The
NHS Board with the lowest figure for both males and females was the old Greater Glasgow area (71.9 and 77.8 years respectively). The highest figures were for Orkney: males (76.3 years) and females (81.4 years).
Compared with 10 years ago in 1993-1995:
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Life expectancy at birth for Scotland has improved from 71.9 years to 74.2 years for males and 77.5 years to 79.2 years for females; the gap between males and females is closing, dropping from 5.6 years to 5.0 years over the period;
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The gap between the highest and lowest areas for male and female life expectancy at birth is increasing. For males, this has increased from 7.0 years in 1993-1995 to 7.8 years in 2003-2005 and for females from 4.3 years to 4.7 years over the same period;
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Although some areas had only very small increases in life expectancy over the 10 year period, there were no areas (Council and
NHS Board area) that experienced a decrease;
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The biggest rise in life expectancy for males was in the Shetland Isles (5.9%) and for females was Argyll & Bute (3.5%);
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The smallest rise was in West Dunbartonshire (0.1%) for males and East Ayrshire (0.9%) for females.
Notes to News Editors
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This is the second publication dedicated to life expectancy produced by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS). It includes information for the 15 old
NHS Board areas as well as the new Board areas following the dissolution of
NHS Argyll & Clyde on 31st March 2006. The component parts of
NHS Argyll & Clyde have been split between Greater Glasgow and Highland
NHS Boards, where the former has been renamed as a result to Greater Glasgow and Clyde. This publication reports results for the old and new areas as well as the two parts of
NHS Argyll & Clyde.
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The first GROS publication dedicated to life expectancy, '
Life expectancy 2002-2004', published on 6 October 2005 is available from this website.
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All the figures in these reports are period life expectancies and are a three year average for the relevant years. They are produced by aggregating deaths and population data for the three year period, which provides large enough numbers to ensure that the figures published in the report are sufficiently robust. Period life expectancy at birth for a given area and time period is an estimate of the average number of years a new born baby would survive if he/she experienced the particular area’s age specific mortality rate for that time period throughout his/her life. The figure reflects mortality among those living in the area in each period, rather than mortality among those born in each area. It is not the number of years a baby born in the area in the period is expected to live, both because death rates are likely to change in the future and because many of the new borns may live elsewhere for at least some part of their lives.
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Period life expectancies for the United Kingdom and its constituent countries (including the whole of Scotland) calculated annually by the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) using complete life tables are available for 1980-1982 to 2002-2004. '
Interim Life Tables' are available from their website.
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Because of the differences between complete (single year of age) and abridged (grouped years) life tables, the Scotland level figures presented in this publication may differ slightly from those published by GAD.
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