The Office of National Statistics brought out a report in February, detailing the expected healthy life expectancy of people in the UK, based on data from the Census in 2021.
The report noted that in 2022 to 2024, males could expect to live an average of 60.3 years of healthy life and females an average of 60.9 years of healthy life. This compares with 62.5 for males and 63.4 for females in the previous period from 2019 to 2021.
Declining life expectancy
This means that the healthy life expectancy of both males and females has fallen to their lowest levels since this kind of reporting began in 2011 to 2013.
Of even greater concern to us in this region, the Northeast remained the region with the lowest healthy life expectancy with 57.0 years for males and 56.9 years for females.
This compares with the region in England with the highest healthy life expectancy, the Southeast, where the scores are 63.0 for males and 64.3 for females respectively.
This should be a deeply alarming report and what is perhaps even more alarming is how little coverage there has been of the report in the media.
As has been noted, a century ago, the average life expectancy for a male at birth was 48.4 years, while the average life expectancy for a female was 54.0 years. These life expectancy levels consistently rose during the 20th century and into the first decade of the 21st century.
However, the long-held assumptions that children would both be better off than their parents and live longer can now no longer be taken for granted.
On the contrary, it appears that life expectancy is now going down, which is surely a sign of something going very wrong with our society.
It is also of course of particular concern that our region has the lowest healthy life expectancy for both males and females.
What might be causing the decline in life expectancy and the particular problems in our region?
The link between poverty and healthy life expectancy
It has been noted that the share of wealth in UK society held by the wealthiest 1% declined from 24% in 1919 to 8% in 1980. The story of the twentieth century was not just a story of rising standards of living, but also of greater equality. It is no coincidence that life expectancy rose across the UK during this time. By the 2010s this figure had risen back up to 12%, as life expectancy has begun to fall.
Meanwhile, it was reported in 2024 that 31.2% of people aged 55 and younger, living in persistent poverty did not report having good health. This contrasts sharply with figures of 28.3% of adults living in non-persistent poverty and 18.4% of adults not in poverty reporting that they were not in good health.
With regards to the Northeast specifically it has been reported that in 2023/2024, 31% of children in the region are living in poverty, amounting to 170 000 children in total.
Additionally , Feeding Families have noted that “The latest English Indices of Deprivation 2025 paints a picture that people in the North East already know too well: our region is being left behind, and the consequences are long term and devastating. The report ranks neighbourhoods across income, health, education, crime, housing and the environment. Once again, the North East leads the table for the highest proportion of deprived communities in England; with 21.5% of neighbourhoods officially classed as deprived. That’s more than five times the figure in the South East.”
Clear link between wealth and health
The evidence is clear. Firstly, healthy life expectancy for the first time in at least a century is coming down across the UK, for both males and females.This is at the same time a shocking piece of information and also somehow not shocking at all. It is shocking in the respect that for decades now, we have seen increases in life expectancy and it increased by about 60% during the 100 years up to 2010. Yet it is somehow not shocking at all, as we look around this once proud country and see a broken public realm and realise that declining healthy life expectancy is simply another dismal piece of a depressing national jigsaw.
Similarly, it really should not come as a surprise to readers that the Northeast has the lowest healthy life expectancy of any region in England. It is in the regional context that we really see the clear link between declining healthy life expectancy and growing poverty becoming visible. The northeast is the poorest region in England, with the most deprived neighbourhoods and the North-South divide in England as wide as ever.
And it is no secret as to why life expectancy has begun to decline since 2010 and why our region is the worst hit. The years following the general election of that year saw endless and needless austerity under Cameron and Osborne, with the North particularly badly hit. It is no coincidence that government policy since 2010 has contributed to the growing crisis. Rather, it is an inevitable consequence of policies which have seen the poor made poorer, while inequalities in the country have grown between wealthy and poor and between North and South.
The report by the ONS is yet more hard evidence that we need a change of direction from this government and any government that might be elected in the future. There need to be positive policies to help people out of poverty across the nation and especially in regions like ours. Otherwise we can only expect more of the same; healthy life expectancy continuing to decline across the country and Northeast England continuing to be the worst hit region of all.
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