Latest Life Expectancy Figures Announced

6 October 2005

The Registrar General for Scotland today published a report giving peoples’ life expectancy in Council and Health Board areas of Scotland on the basis of data for the period 2002-2004. Life expectancy at birth for Scotland is 73.8 years for males and 79.0 years for females. This varies considerably amongst areas in Scotland.

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 report are:

The council area with the highest male life expectancy was East Dunbartonshire (77.0 years), 7.7 years more than Glasgow City (lowest at 69.3 years);
Aberdeenshire had the highest life expectancy for females (80.8 years), 4.4 years more than Glasgow City (lowest at 76.4 years);
The health board with the lowest figure for both males and females was Greater Glasgow (71.2 and 77.5 years respectively). The highest figures were for Orkney Health Board: males (76.5 years) and females (80.5 years).

Compared with 10 years ago in 1992-1994:

Life expectancy at birth for Scotland has improved from 71.7 years to 73.8 years for males and 77.4 years to 79.0 years for females;
The gap between males and females is closing, dropping from 5.7 years to 5.2 years over the period;
The gap between highest and lowest areas for male life expectancy at birth is increasing (from 6.8 years in 1992-1994 to 7.7 years in 2002-2004) and for females, the gap is decreasing (from 4.6 to 4.4 years);
The biggest rise in life expectancy for males was in Orkney and Stirling (4.8%) and for females was in Shetland (3.3%);
The smallest rise was in West Dunbartonshire (0.8%) for males and West Lothian (0.4%) for females.

Notes to News Editors

1. This is the first publication dedicated to life expectancy produced by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS).

2. For previous years (1991-1993 to 2001-2003) life expectancy for Council and Health Board areas in Scotland were produced and published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 15 October 2004. Results for 1991-1993 to 2001-2003 and the methodology used are available on the ONS website.

3. The figures for 2002-2004 are a three year average for these 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. Life expectancy at birth for a given area 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.

4. Life expectancies for the United Kingdom and its constituent countries (including the whole of Scotland) are calculated annually by the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) using complete life tables. These are available for 1980-1982 to 2001-2003 from the GAD website. GAD intends to publish in November 2005 interim life tables for the whole of Scotland for 2002-2004. Provisional figures are available in the Vital Events Reference Tables 2004 on this website.

5. 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.

6. The publication, Life Expectancy 2002-2004, is being made available primarily through this website, though hard copies may be obtained from Statistics Customer Services using our Contact Form.