Health · Healthy years · United Kingdom and England · 2011–13 to 2022–24
How many years do people live in good health?
In the UK in 2022–24, a newborn boy could expect 79.2 years of life and 60.7 in good health; a girl 83.0 and 60.9. Lifespans are close to their 2011–13 level, but healthy years have fallen by 2.0 (men) and 2.8 (women).
Evidence last reviewed 11 October 2026
The UK picture
Survey-based evidence
Are people living longer, and how much of that life is healthy?
Lifespans are back where they were; years in good health have fallen
Life expectancy at birth
1996–2026 · recorded figures. Shading marks years without figures: this series starts in 2012.
Healthy life expectancy at birth
1996–2026 · recorded figures. Shading marks years without figures: this series starts in 2012.
People are living about as long as before, but spending fewer years in good health. Healthy years are estimated partly from how people describe their own health.
United Kingdom (both panels) · 2011–13 to 2022–24 · Official statistics (life expectancy); official statistics in development (healthy life expectancy)
Show the workings — Lifespans are back where they were; years in good health have fallen
Left: life expectancy at birth. Right: healthy life expectancy at birth (years in “very good” or “good” self-reported health). United Kingdom, by sex, three-year periods 2011–13 to 2022–24. Both axes span ten years so slopes are comparable; neither starts at zero.
Life expectancy dipped during the pandemic and in 2022–24 is 79.2 years for men and 83.0 for women — within a few months of 2011–13. Healthy life expectancy did not recover: it fell from 62.7 to 60.7 years for men and from 63.7 to 60.9 for women. The gap between the two lines — years lived in less than good health — has widened to 18.5 (men) and 22.1 (women). Confidence intervals are narrow for life expectancy and wider for healthy life expectancy.
- Geography:
- United Kingdom (both panels) — Usual residents; deaths of non-residents excluded
- Measure:
- Years
- Period:
- 2011–13 to 2022–24
- Status:
- Official statistics (life expectancy); official statistics in development (healthy life expectancy)
- Calculation:
- As published. Each point is a three-year average plotted at its middle year. Life expectancy from the ONS local-area series that ONS pairs with healthy life expectancy.
- Compare with:
- 2011–13, the first period of the healthy life expectancy series
- Not included / breaks:
- Healthy life expectancy rests on people’s own rating of their health in the Annual Population Survey; it is not a clinical diagnosis. ONS re-estimated the whole series with an interim method because the survey’s sample has shrunk, which widens uncertainty. Periods overlap, so consecutive points are not independent.
Source: ONS, Healthy life expectancy, UK: between 2011 to 2013 and 2022 to 2024, Dataset “Healthy life expectancy, UK”, Table 1 (released 19 February 2026).
View the data as a table
| Period | Life expectancy, men | Life expectancy, women | Healthy life expectancy, men | Healthy life expectancy, women |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011–13 | 79.0 | 82.8 | 62.7 | 63.7 |
| 2012–14 | 79.1 | 82.8 | 62.9 | 63.7 |
| 2013–15 | 79.1 | 82.8 | 63.0 | 63.9 |
| 2014–16 | 79.2 | 82.9 | 63.0 | 63.8 |
| 2015–17 | 79.2 | 82.8 | 63.1 | 63.8 |
| 2016–18 | 79.2 | 82.9 | 63.0 | 63.8 |
| 2017–19 | 79.4 | 83.0 | 62.9 | 63.5 |
| 2018–20 | 79.0 | 82.8 | 62.8 | 63.7 |
| 2019–21 | 78.7 | 82.7 | 62.4 | 63.4 |
| 2020–22 | 78.6 | 82.6 | 62.0 | 62.4 |
| 2021–23 | 78.8 | 82.8 | 61.3 | 61.6 |
| 2022–24 | 79.2 (79.1–79.2) | 83.0 (83–83.1) | 60.7 (60.5–60.9) | 60.9 (60.7–61.2) |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
England, for comparison with local and deprivation figures
Survey-based evidence
How does England compare with the UK as a whole?
In England, about 19 (men) and 22 (women) years are lived in less than good health
- Men — life expectancy79.5
- Women — life expectancy83.3
Axis runs from 55 to 85 years; it does not start at zero.
Women live longer than men but spend more years in less than good health. The same broad pattern appears across all four nations; these figures are for England.
England · 2022–24 · Official statistics; healthy life expectancy in development
Show the workings — In England, about 19 (men) and 22 (women) years are lived in less than good health
Life expectancy at birth (filled dot) and healthy life expectancy at birth (open dot), England, 2022–24. The bar between them is the expected years in less than good health.
England has the highest healthy life expectancy of the four UK nations (60.9 years for men and 61.3 for women), but the pattern is the same: women live longer than men and spend more years — and a larger share of life — in less than good health. Use England figures when comparing with the deprivation estimates below, which cover England only.
- Geography:
- England — Usual residents
- Measure:
- Years
- Period:
- 2022–24
- Status:
- Official statistics; healthy life expectancy in development
- Calculation:
- Years in less than good health = life expectancy minus healthy life expectancy (UK Facts calculation, same period and geography).
- Compare with:
- United Kingdom: 79.2 / 60.7 (men), 83.0 / 60.9 (women)
- Not included / breaks:
- Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own figures in the ONS release; this chart shows England only.
Source: ONS, Healthy life expectancy, UK: between 2011 to 2013 and 2022 to 2024, Dataset “Healthy life expectancy, UK”, Table 1 (released 19 February 2026).
View the data as a table
| Sex | Life expectancy (95% CI) | Healthy life expectancy (95% CI) | Years in less than good health |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men | 79.5 (79.4–79.5) | 60.9 (60.7–61.2) | 18.6 |
| Women | 83.3 (83.3–83.4) | 61.3 (61–61.6) | 22.0 |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Why healthy years fell — and what the measure cannot tell you
Healthy life expectancy combines death rates with how people answer one survey question: is your health in general very good, good, fair, bad or very bad? The years spent answering “fair” or worse are counted as years in less than good health — 18.5 for men and 22.1 for women in the UK in 2022–24, up from 16.3 and 19.1 in 2011–13. It is a measure of how people feel about their health, not a count of diagnoses.
Competing explanations. More people living with long-term physical and mental health conditions would produce this pattern; so would the after-effects of the pandemic and longer waits for treatment. A change in how people rate the same health would also move the measure without any change in illness. Other evidence on this site points to real change rather than reporting alone: common mental health conditions among working-age adults rose between 2014 and 2023/4 (see mental health), and more people are out of work through long-term sickness (see ill health and work). None of these sources measures how much each factor contributes.
Uncertainty. ONS publishes 95% confidence intervals. For the UK in 2022–24, healthy life expectancy for men is 60.7 years (60.5 to 60.9); for women 60.9 (60.7 to 61.2). Because Annual Population Survey samples have fallen, ONS re-estimated the whole series with an interim modelling method and labels it official statistics in development. The fall since 2011–13 is much larger than these intervals.
Which life expectancy? This page uses the ONS local-area life tables because ONS pairs them with healthy life expectancy. ONS’s National life tables, used on the pensions page, give life expectancy at 65 of 18.7 years for men and 21.2 for women in 2022–24; the two series differ by about a tenth of a year because they group ages differently. Neither should be spliced into the other.
For what could raise healthy life expectancy, and how long each option would take, see what would move the needle.
Sources and methods (3)
- ONS, Healthy life expectancy, UK: between 2011 to 2013 and 2022 to 2024, Dataset “Healthy life expectancy, UK”, Table 1 (released 19 February 2026) — healthy life expectancy, UK and England, with confidence intervals
- ONS, Life expectancy for local areas of the UK: between 2001 to 2003 and 2022 to 2024, Table 1 (country rows) (released 10 December 2025) — life expectancy paired with healthy life expectancy
- ONS, National life tables: UK, 2022 to 2024 — national life tables comparison (life expectancy at 65)
Method notes
- Three-year periods, plotted at the middle year. Periods overlap, so consecutive points share two years of data.
- Years in less than good health = life expectancy minus healthy life expectancy, for the same geography and period (UK Facts calculation).
- Period life expectancy applies current death rates for life; it is not a forecast of how long any individual will live.