PERIOD · 2022 TO 2024
On today's death rates
UK life expectancy at birth was 83.0 years for females and 79.1 for males, assuming today's death rates at each age never change.
Pick a questionREADING THE LIFE TABLES
An average,
not a countdown.
Life expectancy is one of the most quoted numbers there is, and one of the most misread.
Pick a question
83.0years, UK females at birth
The ONS publishes two kinds: period figures based on today's death rates, and cohort figures that allow for future change. They answer different questions, and neither predicts any one person's life.
At a glance
- Period or cohort?
- Averages, not forecasts
- Years in good health
- Life expectancy, explained
8–10 years
How far period figures undershot
For people born in England and Wales between 1950 and 2000, cohort life expectancy at birth has been around 8 to 10 years higher than the period figure.
PERIOD VS COHORT · ONS
73%
Share of life in good health, UK females
In 2022 to 2024, females could expect to spend 73% of life in good general health and males 77%, though in years the two were almost level.
HEALTHY SHARE · ONS
TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
The gap is big,
the healthy share smaller.
One figure for how far period estimates undershoot,
one for how much of life is spent in good health.
Period figures assume today's death rates continue, so they tend to be lower than cohort figures. Cohort figures are projections, not forecasts, and the ONS publishes high and low variants.
PICK A QUESTION
Which figure
answers it?
Choose the question you actually want answered. Each one needs a different ONS figure; the bar shows how large that figure is.
UK figures from ONS national life tables (2022 to 2024), past and projected life tables (2024-based) and healthy life expectancy (2022 to 2024). Averages for a whole population. General information, not medical advice.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Two numbers,
two questions.
Period life expectancy describes death rates now.
Cohort life expectancy projects how a generation's lives may go.
General information only, not medical advice. For advice about your own health, speak to a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified health professional.
COHORT · BORN 2024
Allowing for change
Allowing for assumed future improvements, the ONS projects that girls born in 2024 will live to 90.2 years on average and boys to 86.9.
See the gap
HEALTHY · 2022 TO 2024
Years in good health
Males could expect 60.7 years in good general health and females 60.9, the lowest since the series began in 2011 to 2013.
How it is measured
BEFORE YOU QUOTE ONE
Check the kind,
then the date.
A few questions from the ONS's own explanations help make sense of any life expectancy figure you see.
Period or cohort?
Period figures use death rates for a fixed time. Cohort figures follow people born in one year and allow for future changes in death rates.
At birth or at an age?
Life expectancy at 65 is the average number of further years for people who have already reached 65, not a figure taken from birth.
Which years?
National life tables average three years of deaths to smooth out events like flu. Single-year tables are more volatile.
Remember it is an average
The ONS stresses that some people die before these ages and others live longer, and that the figures ignore personal factors such as lifestyle.
HOW HEALTHY YEARS ARE COUNTED
Healthy life
is self-rated.
Healthy life expectancy is the average time someone is expected to live in 'very good' or 'good' general health, based on how people rate their own health in the Annual Population Survey, with census data filling gaps.
The ONS currently labels these estimates official statistics in development because of falling survey sample sizes. Differences between places are wide: across UK local areas the gap was 14.7 years for males and 15.8 years for females.
Questions
Questions people ask
Why are there two life expectancy figures?
Period life expectancy uses death rates from a fixed period and assumes they never change. Cohort life expectancy follows people born in a given year and allows for assumed future improvements.
Which one is more realistic for a person?
The ONS regards cohort figures as the more appropriate measure of how long a person of a given age would live on average, but they are projections, not forecasts.
Has UK life expectancy stopped rising?
The ONS says period life expectancy has remained virtually unchanged for the last 10 years, after sustained increases in the preceding decades.
Does life expectancy differ across the UK?
Yes. In 2022 to 2024, period life expectancy at birth ranged from 83.3 years for females in England to 77.1 years for males in Scotland.
What is healthy life expectancy?
It is the average number of years people are expected to live in 'very good' or 'good' self-rated general health. In 2022 to 2024 it was 60.7 years for UK males and 60.9 for females.
Sources
Where the facts come from
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