In 2020/22, life expectancy at birth in Northern Ireland was 82.26 years for women and 78.43 years for men. For people aged 65 life expectancy was 20.54 years for women, and 18.29 years for men.

Period life expectancy by age and sex for Northern Ireland. Each national life table is based on population estimates, births and deaths for a period of three consecutive years. Tables are published annually.

Male life expectancy at birth fell in all four countries of the United Kingdom in 2020-22 when compared with 2019/21. English men had a life expectancy of 78.83, compared with 76.52 in Scotland, 77.93 in Wales and 78.43 in Northern Ireland. In both England and Wales, life expectancy ticked up for the period 2021/23.

At the beginning of the 1840s, life expectancy from birth in Ireland was just over 38 years. However, this figure would see a dramatic decline with the beginning of the Great Famine in 1845, and dropped below 21 years in the second half of the decade (in 1849 alone, life expectancy fell to just 14 years). The famine came as a result of a Europe-wide potato blight, which had a disproportionally devastating impact on the Irish population due to the dependency on potatoes (particularly in the south and east), and the prevalence of a single variety of potato on the island that allowed the blight to spread faster than in other areas of Europe. Additionally, authorities forcefully redirected much of the country's surplus grain to the British mainland, which exacerbated the situation. Within five years, mass starvation would contribute to the deaths of over one million people on the island, while a further one million would emigrate; this also created a legacy of emigration from Ireland, which saw the population continue to fall until the mid-1900s, and the total population of the island is still well below its pre-famine level of 8.5 million people.

Following the end of the Great Famine, life expectancy would begin to gradually increase in Ireland, as post-famine reforms would see improvements in the living standards of the country’s peasantry, most notably the Land Wars, a largely successful series of strikes, boycotts and protests aimed at reform of the country's agricultural land distribution, which began in the 1870s and lasted into the 20th century. As these reforms were implemented, life expectancy in Ireland would rise to more than fifty years by the turn of the century. While this rise would slow somewhat in the 1910s, due to the large number of Irish soldiers who fought in the First World War and the Spanish Flu pandemic, as well as the period of civil unrest leading up to the island's partition in 1921, life expectancy in Ireland would rise greatly in the 20th century. In the second half of the 20th century, Ireland's healthcare system and living standards developed similarly to the rest of Western Europe, and today, it is often ranks among the top countries globally in terms of human development, GDP and quality of healthcare. With these developments, the increase in life expectancy from birth in Ireland was relatively constant in the first century of independence, and in 2020 is estimated to be 82 years.

High life expectancy variant projection for Northern Ireland including population by broad age group, components of change and summary statistics.

Chart and table of Ireland life expectancy from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

Female life expectancy at birth fell in all four countries of the United Kingdom in 2020-22 when compared with 2019/21. English women had a life expectancy of 82.83, compared with 80.73 in Scotland, 81.82 in Wales and 82.26 in Northern Ireland. In both England and Wales, life expectancy ticked up for the period 2021/23.

Period and Cohort Mortality rates (qx) for Northern Ireland using the high life expectancy variant by single year of age 0 to 100.

Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a person can expect to live should current mortality patterns stay constant. This report details how trends in mortality by age and cause of death explain recent changes in life expectancy. The results are examined in the context of changes in the recording, measuring and classifi cation of demographic data over recent years. Source agency: Health, Social Service and Public Safety (Northern Ireland) Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: NI HSC IMS An overview of changes in Northern Ireland life expectancy

Period life expectancy for single-year periods, at birth and other age groups at regional and local authority levels in selected constituent countries.

This report presents the latest figures on male and female health expectancy, at birth and at age 65, for the UK and its four constituent countries. While life expectancy (LE) provides an estimate of average expected life-span, healthy life expectancy (HLE) divides total LE into years spent in good or ‘not good’ health. Disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) divides LE into years lived with and without a chronic illness or disability. These figures are three-year averages. LE is taken from the UK national interim life tables published annually by ONS, and the measures of health and chronic illness from the General Household Survey (GHS) in Great Britain and the Continuous Household Survey (CHS) in Northern Ireland. Source agency: Office for National Statistics Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: National Health Expectancies

Life expectancy in the United Kingdom was below 39 years in the year 1765, and over the course of the next two and a half centuries, it is expected to have increased by more than double, to 81.1 by the year 2020. Although life expectancy has generally increased throughout the UK's history, there were several times where the rate deviated from its previous trajectory. These changes were the result of smallpox epidemics in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, new sanitary and medical advancements throughout time (such as compulsory vaccination), and the First world War and Spanish Flu epidemic in the 1910s.

Low life expectancy variant projection for Northern Ireland including population by broad age group, components of change and summary statistics.

Objective Gains in life expectancy have faltered in several high-income countries in recent years. We aim to compare life expectancy trends in Scotland to those seen internationally, and to assess the timing of any recent changes in mortality trends for Scotland. Setting Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England & Wales, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, USA. Methods We used life expectancy data from the Human Mortality Database (HMD) to calculate the mean annual life expectancy change for 24 high-income countries over five-year periods from 1992 to 2016, and the change for Scotland for five-year periods from 1857 to 2016. One- and two-break segmented regression models were applied to mortality data from National Records of Scotland (NRS) to identify turning points in age-standardised mortality trends between 1990 and 2018. Results In 2012-2016 life expectancies in Scotland increased by 2.5 weeks/year for females and 4.5 weeks/year for males, the smallest gains of any period since the early 1970s. The improvements in life expectancy in 2012-2016 were smallest among females (<2.0 weeks/year) in Northern Ireland, Iceland, England & Wales and the USA and among males (<5.0 weeks/year) in Iceland, USA, England & Wales and Scotland. Japan, Korea, and countries of Eastern Europe have seen substantial gains in the same period. The best estimate of when mortality rates changed to a slower rate of improvement in Scotland was the year to 2012 Q4 for males and the year to 2014 Q2 for females. Conclusion Life expectancy improvement has stalled across many, but not all, high income countries. The recent change in the mortality trend in Scotland occurred within the period 2012-2014. Further research is required to understand these trends, but governments must also take timely action on plausible contributors.

High life expectancy variant projection for Northern Ireland - Population by five year age groups and sex.

80.9 (Years) in 2018.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Northern Ireland Health and Social Wellbeing Survey is sponsored by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, to provide information on and monitor trends in the health of the Northern Ireland population over time.

The regional strategy for Northern Ireland health and personal social services, published in 1991, set out key health targets in a number of areas. The aim in setting these targets is to increase life expectancy among the population and to improve the quality of people's lives. Good quality information is vital for the formulation of health policies. The Health and Social Wellbeing Survey provides this information and plays a key role in ensuring that health planning is based on reliable information, as well as monitoring the effectiveness of government policies and the extent to which targets are achieved. The survey will be used to help plan health services to meet the needs of the population.

Further information about the survey, including links to online publications, may be found on the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) Health and Social Wellbeing Survey web pages.


Main Topics:

The dataset contains information from the complete and proxy interviews achieved from the 1997 survey. Variables relating to household composition and characteristics are at the start of the data file, followed by individual information such as age, gender, occupational history and educational attainment. The data subsequently cover these topics: general health, health and ill-health, stress, physical activity, smoking and drinking, SF36 and GHQ12 schedules.

Standard Measures
SF36 and GHQ12 are standard psychological measurement tools.

Period and cohort expectation of life in Northern Ireland using the low life expectancy variant by single year of age 0 to 100.