Men in West Lothian enjoy longer, more healthier lives than many of their peers in other areas of the Lothians - but it’s not great news for women.
New figures show West Lothian men have the second highest rate of healthy life expectancy at 61.5 years, second only to Edinburgh, where there is a big jump that sees men live for 78 years.
Males living in East Lothian live until 60.7 years on average and in Mid Lothian it’s 59.7.
But surprisingly, West Lothian is the only area in the Lothians where healthy life expectancy for men is higher than that for women – who can expect to live for 59.5 years - lower than the national average.
The new data comes from National Records of Scotland (NRS), which shows the Scottish average for men is 60.4 and women is 61.1.
Maria, Kaye-Bardgett, NRS statistician said: “It’s important to recognise the difference between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy but also how they impact on each other.
“These figures show that people living in the most deprived communities are more likely to report their health poor - so they have a shorter healthy life expectancy.
“We already know from life expectancy figures that people in the most deprived communities die at younger ages. Using both sets of figures we can say that males and females in the most deprived communities spend more than a third of their lives in poor health.
“In comparison people in the least deprived areas can expect to live around 15% of their lives in poor health and will enjoy longer lives.”
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