Residents in wealthier London boroughs live a decade longer in “good health” than those in poorer areas, analysis shows.
Figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that men in Richmond lived to 69.5 in good health between 2021 and 2023, compared with 57.8 in Lewisham.
Healthy life expectancy (HLE) is defined as the measure of the average years that a person would expect to live in good health. It is calculated using mortality rates and the prevalence of self-reported good health among the population.
On average, a man in London can expect to live to 63.9 in good health while a woman can expect to live until 64.
While London has the highest overall HLE of any region in the country, analysis reveals stark differences between poor and wealthy boroughs in the capital.
Richmond has the HLE for men (69.5) and women (70.2), followed by Kingston upon Thames (68.8 for men, 69.4 for women).
But in Lewisham, the HLE is just 57.8 for men and 57.2 for women. It is followed by Tower Hamlets, where the HLE for men is 60 and 59.2 for women.
Men in Lewisham live nearly 7 years less in good health compared with a decade ago, while women have seen a fall of 8 years in their HLE.
In Tower Hamlets, the HLE for men and women improved up until the pandemic hit, when it dropped by 3.5 and 4.8 respectively.
Veena Raleigh, Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund, said: “While this data reflects the impact of the pandemic, both life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in England were stalling before Covid-19 struck. There has now been a prolonged period during which the health of England’s population has not just failed to improve, it has deteriorated.
“This shows how challenging it will be for the government to achieve its ambition of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions in England. Poor health is also a serious impediment to economic growth, with an estimated 2.8m people unable to work due to ill health.
“Turning this ship around will require concerted cross-government action and investment to improve population health and tackle the socio-economic factors driving health inequalities that scar the nation and blight the lives of individuals, families and communities.”
