Latest Life Expectancy Figures Announced

25 September 2008

The Registrar General for Scotland today published a report on Life Expectancy for Administrative Areas within Scotland, 2005-2007.

The report, based on the period 2005-2007, shows that life expectancy at birth for Scotland has improved over the last 10 years from 72.3 years to 74.8 years for men and 77.9 years to 79.7 years for women.

Commenting on these results, Registrar General for Scotland Duncan Macniven said:

“Today’s figures show that the steady increase in life expectancy is continuing. Over the past 10 years, the gap between men and women has narrowed, and so has the gap between the council areas with the best and poorest life expectancy for men, although it has widened for women. But Scots can still expect to live shorter lives than any country in Western Europe, and 4 to 5 years shorter than the countries with the highest life expectancy.”

The key points in this report for 2005-2007 are:

At birth:

Life expectancy at birth for Scotland was 74.8 years for men and 79.7 years for women;
Life expectancy varied considerably across Scotland. The council area with the highest male life expectancy was East Dunbartonshire (78.0 years), 7.2 years more than Glasgow City (the lowest at 70.8 years);
The council area with the highest female life expectancy was Shetland (82.6 years), 5.5 years more than Glasgow City (lowest at 77.1 years).

At age 65:

Life expectancy for Scotland was 16.1 years for men and 18.8 years for women;
The council area with the highest life expectancy for men and woman was Shetland (18.4 years and 21.0 years respectively), 4.6 years for men and 3.6 years for women more than Glasgow City.

Compared with 10 years ago in 1995-1997:

Life expectancy at birth for Scotland has increased by 2.5 years for men (from 72.3 years to 74.8 years) and 1.8 years for women (from 77.9 years to 79.7 years);
The gap between men and women continues to close, dropping from 5.6 years to 4.9 years over the period;
Although some areas had only very small increases in life expectancy over the 10 year period, there were no areas (council or NHS board area) where life expectancy decreased;
The gap between highest and lowest council areas for men decreased by 0.3 years – from 7.5 years in 1995-1997 to 7.2 years in 2005-2007. For women, the gap increased by 0.7 years – from 4.8 years to 5.5. There was a similar pattern in NHS board areas;
Among council areas, the biggest rise in life expectancy was in Shetland (4.0 years) for men and East Dunbartonshire (3.4 years) for women. The smallest rise was in Clackmannanshire (1.4 years) for men and East Ayrshire (0.5 years) for women;
Scottish men and women have among the lowest life expectancy in Europe. Only the Eastern European states which joined the EU on 1 May 2004 and 1 January 2007 have lower figures. Scottish men can expect to live slightly shorter lives (0.4 years) than the EU average – but, for Scottish women, life expectancy is almost 2 years lower. For both sexes, the expectation of life is 4 to 5 years lower than the countries with the highest expectation of life.

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