UK life expectancy yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels
The estimates continue to reflect the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Life expectancy in the UK has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels, new estimates suggest.
A baby girl born between 2021 and 2023 can expect to live for an average of 82.8 years, while a baby boy is likely to live for 78.8 years.
Both figures are below the equivalent estimates for babies born in the pre-Covid-19 period of 2017-19, which were 83.0 years for females and 79.3 years for males.
They also show little or no change on estimates for the three-year period immediately preceding 2021-23, which suggested girls born in 2018-20 were likely to live for 82.8 years and boys for 79.0 years.
The data has been published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The Covid-19 pandemic saw a jump in the number of deaths in the UK, particularly in 2020 and 2021.
“As a result, our three-year period life expectancy estimates have fallen,” the ONS said.
Life expectancy in the UK improved steadily during the 1980s, 1990 and 2000s, but the rate of improvement slowed in the 2010s and the figures started to level off in the years immediately before the pandemic.
But although the latest estimates represent a drop compared with the pre-pandemic period, this does not mean a baby born between 2021 and 2023 will necessarily go on to live a shorter life.
“Improvements in mortality rates in the future would lead to increases in life expectancy estimates,” the ONS noted.
Among the four nations of the UK, England had the highest life expectancy for babies born in 2021-23, at 83.0 years for females and 79.1 for males.
Scotland had the lowest estimates: 80.8 years for females and 76.8 years for males.
The figures for Wales are 82.0 years for females and 78.1 for males, while for Northern Ireland they are 82.5 years and 78.8 years respectively.
