Life Expectancy
Treasury

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Photo of Stephen Byers

Stephen Byers (North Tyneside, Labour)

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the life expectancy is of (a) males and (b) females in each of the 25 (i) most and (ii) least deprived electoral wards; and how many, on average, of these years will be spent with a disability.

Photo of Angela Eagle

Angela Eagle (Parliamentary Secretary, HM Treasury; Wallasey, Labour)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 16 July 2007:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what the life expectancy is of (a) males and (b) females in each of the 25 (i) most deprived electoral wards and (ii) least deprived wards; and how many on average of these years will be spent with a disability. (149945)

The attached table provides the period life expectancy at birth in the 25 (i) most deprived and (ii) least deprived wards in England and Wales, as a five-year average for 1999-2003 (the only period available). The figures are presented for (a) males, (b) females and (c) all persons, as some wards are too small for the calculation of life expectancies for males and females separately.

These figures are experimental statistics—that is, statistics which are in a testing or consultation phase and are not fully developed—and should therefore be treated with caution. Because life expectancies for wards can be based on very small numbers of deaths and small populations, they are subject to large variations even when averaged over five years, and extreme results may be due only to chance.

Based on these life expectancy figures, ONS will release experimental statistics on disability-free life expectancy at birth for wards on 23rd August 2007. These will provide a breakdown of the period life expectancy estimate for each ward into years spent without a disability (or disability-free) and years spent with a disability.

A recently published analysis showed that on average, males could expect to spend 18 out of 71 years (25 per cent.) of life with a disability in the most deprived twentieth of all wards in England and Wales grouped together, and 11 out of 79 years (14 per cent.) in the least deprived twentieth. Females could expect to spend 21 out of 78 years of life (27 per cent.) with a disability in the most deprived twentieth of wards, and 13 out of 82 years (16 per cent.) in the least deprived twentieth.(1)

(1) Rasulo D, Bajekal M, Yar M (2007). Inequalities in health expectancies in England and Wales—small area analysis from the 2001 Census. Health Statistics Quarterly 34, 35-45

Table 1. Period life expectancy at birth by sex( 1,2) for the 25 most deprived and 25 least deprived( 3) wards in England and Wales, 1999-2003( 4)
Years of life
Rank order Local authority Ward Males Females Persons Communal establishment indicator( 5)
Most deprived
1 Oldham Coldhurst 72 77 74 1
2 Tower Hamlets Bromley-by-Bow 72 80 75 2
3 Birmingham Sparkbrook 70 78 74 5
4 Tower Hamlets Bethnal Green South 72 81 76 0
5 Tower Hamlets Spitalfields and Banglatown 72 79 75 4
6 Birmingham Aston 72 80 75 2
7 Tower Hamlets Shadwell 73 79 76 1
8 Middlesbrough Middlehaven 65 72 68 0
9 Tower Hamlets Whitechapel 73 79 76 5
10 Tower Hamlets Mile End East 72 79 76 1
11 Bradford Bradford Moor 71 74 72 0
12 Tower Hamlets St. Dunstan's and Stepney Green 73 77 75 2
13 Tower Hamlets Weavers 74 81 77 1
14 Bradford University 71 76 73 2
15 Knowsley Princess 68 77 72 5
16 Leicester Spinney Hills 74 80 77 1
17 Liverpool Granby 67 74 70 0
18 Newham Green Street East 76 81 78 0
19 Newham Green Street West 76 79 77 2
20 Kensington and Chelsea Golborne 74 82 78 1
21 Newham Little Ilford 72 77 75 0
22 Redcar and Cleveland Grangetown 70 78 74 0
23 Knowsley Longview 73 80 76 2
24 Birmingham Small Heath 72 79 76 0
25 Birmingham Nechells 70 77 74 2
Least deprived
1 Chiltern Austenwood 76 82 78 5
2 Surrey Heath St. Pauls 79 80 80 5
3 South Bucks Gerrards Cross South 83 95 87 0
4 Macclesfield Prestbury 78 84 81 4
5 Macclesfield Knutsford Norbury Booths 85 87 86 0
6 East Staffordshire Little Aston 77 79 78 4
7 Three Rivers Chorteywood East 80 83 81 4
8 Lichfield Nonsuch 80 82 81 2
9 Winchester Whiteley 79 81 83 0
10 Cardiff Lisvane 83 83 83 0
11 Wealden Crowborough St. Johns 74 78 76 3
12 Reading Mapledurham 84 86 85 0
13 Waverley Godalming Holloway 82 86 84 0
14 Daventry Brampton — — 84 0
15 Durham Shincliffe — — 82 5
16 Waverley Farnham Bourne 82 88 85 1
17 Tandridge Woldingham — 84 82 2
18 Sedgemoor Axe Vale 83 82 82 1
19 Rushcliffe Wolds — 82 78 5
20 Woking Mayford and Sutton Green 78 86 82 0
21 Monmouthshire Shirenewton 77 — 81 0
22 Wokingham Barkham 78 85 81 0
23 Wokingham Finchampstead North 80 88 84 1
24 Mole Valley Ashtead Park 80 83 82 3
25 Three Rivers Moor Park and Eastbury 80 80 80 5
(1) Period life expectancy at birth is an estimate of the average number of years a newborn baby would survive if he or she experienced the area's age-specific mortality rates for that time period throughout his or her life. The figure reflects mortality among those living in the area in each time period, rather than mortality among those born in each area. It is not therefore the number of years a baby born in the area in each time period could actually expect to live, both because the death rates of the area are likely to change in the future and because many of those born in the area will live elsewhere for at least some part of their lives.

(2) Wards for which life expectancy for one or both sexes could not be calculated due to small numbers are marked by '—'. Life expectancy for all persons combined is given for all wards.

(3) Deprivation was measured using the Carstairs deprivation score, which reflects levels of household overcrowding, male unemployment, low social class and car ownership.

(4) Five year averages, based on deaths registered in each year, and experimental ward population estimates based on the 2001 Census. The ward names and boundaries used are 2001 Census Standard Table wards.

(5) The presence of medical and care communal establishments; such as nursing homes and hospices, can artificially depress the average life expectancy of the ward in which they are located. To aid interpretation of the figures, this indicator shows the proportion of the population of each ward, aged 65 and over, who were resident in such establishments in 2001. For this purpose, all wards in England and Wales (not only the wards in these boroughs) were divided into six groups which are numbered from 0 to five:

'0' means that none of the over-65 population lived in medical and care communal establishments;

'1' means that the proportion of the over-65 population in such establishments was in the lowest fifth of all wards;

'5' means that the proportion of the over-65 population in such establishments was in the highest fifth of all wards.

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