In 2020/22, life expectancy at birth in Scotland was 80.73 years for women and 76.52 years for men. For people aged 65 in Scotland life expectancy was 19.61 years for women and 17.29 years for men.

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

In 2019-2021 healthy life expectancy at birth for females was 61.1 years and for males was 60.4 years. Healthy life expectancy at birth fell for both males and females over the latest year. Healthy life expectancy has been decreasing since 2015-2017 for males and since 2014-2016 for females. Orkney Islands had the highest healthy life expectancy for both males and females. North Lanarkshire had the lowest healthy life expectancy for males and North Ayrshire had the lowest healthy life expectancy for females. Healthy life expectancy for males in the most deprived areas of Scotland was 26 years lower than in the least deprived areas. For females the difference was almost 25 years. In the most deprived areas, males and females spend more than a third of their life in poor health compared to around 15% in the least deprived areas.

National Records of Scotland Guidance;What is ‘period’ life expectancyAll of the estimates presented in this report are ‘period’ life expectancy. They are calculated assuming that mortality rates for each age group in the time period (here 2021-2023) are constant throughout a person’s life. Period life expectancy is often described as how long a baby born now could expect to live if they experienced today’s mortality rates throughout their lifetime. It is very unlikely that this would be the case as it means that future changes in things such as medicine and legislation are not taken into consideration.Period life expectancy is not an accurate prediction of how long a person born today will actually live, but it is a useful measure of population health at a point in time and is most useful for comparing trends over time, between areas of a country and with other countries.How national life expectancy is calculatedThe latest life expectancy figures are calculated from the mid-year population estimates for Scotland and the number of deaths registered in Scotland during 2021, 2022, and 2023. Life expectancy for Scotland is calculated for each year of age and represents the average number of years that someone of that age could expect to live if death rates for each age group remained constant over their lifetime. Life expectancy in Scotland is calculated as a three-year average, produced by combining deaths and population data for the three-year period. Three years of data are needed to provide large enough numbers to make these figures accurate and lessen the effect of very ‘good’ or ‘bad’ years. Throughout this publication, the latest life expectancy figures refer to 2021-2023 period. How sub-national life expectancy is calculatedWe calculate life expectancy for areas within Scotland using a very similar method to the national figures but with a few key differences. Firstly, we use age groups rather than single year of age. This is to increase the population size of each age group to reduce fluctuations and ensure accurate calculation of mortality rates. Secondly, we use a maximum age group of 90+ whereas the national figures are calculated up to age 100. These are known as ‘abridged life tables.’ Because these methods produce slightly different figures, we also calculate a Scotland figure using the abridged method to allow for accurate comparisons between local areas for example. This Scotland figure is only for comparison and does not replace the headline national figure. You can read more information about the methods in this publication in our methodology guide on the NRS website. Uses of life expectancyLife expectancy at birth is a very useful indicator of mortality conditions across a population at a particular point in time. It also provides an objective means of comparing trends in mortality over time, between areas of a country and with other countries. This is used to monitor and investigate health inequalities and to set public health targets. Life expectancy is also used to inform pensions policy, research and teaching.

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.

Life expectancy for administrative areas within Scotland.

Source agency: National Records of Scotland

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Life Expectancy in Scotland

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

Life Expectancy in Special Areas (Urban/Rural, Deprivation and Community Health Partnership) within Scotland

Source agency: National Records of Scotland

Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Life Expectancy in Special Areas in Scotland

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.

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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. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: The HMD has a detailed methods protocol available here: https://www.mortality.org/Public/Docs/MethodsProtocol.pdf The ONS and NRS also have similar methods for ensuring data consistency and quality assurance. Methods for processing the data: The segmented regression was conducted using the 'segmented' package in R. The recommended references to this package and its approach are here: Vito M. R. Muggeo (2003). Estimating regression models with unknown break-points. Statistics in Medicine, 22, 3055-3071. Vito M. R. Muggeo (2008). segmented: an R Package to Fit Regression Models with Broken-Line Relationships. R News, 8/1, 20-25. URL https://cran.r-project.org/doc/Rnews/. Vito M. R. Muggeo (2016). Testing with a nuisance parameter present only under the alternative: a score-based approach with application to segmented modelling. J of Statistical Computation and Simulation, 86, 3059-3067. Vito M. R. Muggeo (2017). Interval estimation for the breakpoint in segmented regression: a smoothed score-based approach. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Statistics, 59, 311-322. Software- or Instrument-specific information needed to interpret the data, including software and hardware version numbers: The analyses were conducted in R version 3.6.1 and Microsoft Excel 2013. Please see README.txt for further information HMD international_updated Jan 2019.xlsx Comprises 20 worksheets, of which 14 contain data. These data are arranged by country and by year. Missing data codes: "" The tab 'contents and sources' provides descriptions of the data source and contents of each sheet. HMD Scotland time trend analysis.xlsx Comprises 5 worksheets, including a combination of data and charts. The sheet 'contents' describes the data source and contents of other sheets. The variables include year, life expectancy, and various measures of change in life expectancy Missing data codes: "" Segmented regression chart.xlsx Comprises 2 worksheets, 'Data' and 'Chart'. Variables within the 'data' worksheet include: Year 4 quarter rolling period ending Female observed mortality rate Female predicted by one-break model Female predicted by two-break model Male observed mortality rate Male predicted by one-break model Male predicted by two-break model Chart breakpoint indicator Missing data codes: (blank space) Summary findings from segmented regression.xlsx Excel workbook containing table 1 of paper 'summary of results of segmented regression by population group and model/test'

Life expectancy figures for urban and rural areas.

Source agency: National Records of Scotland

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Life Expectancy in Special Areas in Scotland

Male healthy life expectancy was 60.9 years. Female healthy life expectancy was 61.8 years. For males, healthy life expectancy at birth was highest in Orkney Islands (71.2 years) and lowest in Inverclyde (54.4 years). For females, healthy life expectancy at birth was highest in Orkney (77.5 years) and lowest in North Ayrshire (54.0 years).

NRS publishes life expectancy estimates on an annual basis. The most recent data, released in September 2021, are sourced from the Life Expectancy in Scotland, 2018-2020 page on the NRS website.

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.

Between 2021 and 2023, London was the region of the United Kingdom that had the highest average life expectancy for females, at 84.13 years, while South East England had the highest life expectancy for males at 80.32 years. By comparison, Scotland had the lowest life expectancy, at 76.79 for males and 80.77 for females.

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Period life expectancy by age and sex for 1980 to 2023 for England, Wales (and combined), Scotland, Northern Ireland, Great Britain, and the UK. Each life table is based on population estimates, births and deaths for a single year.