Glasgow health gap as residents lose years of healthy life ONS stats

According to the latest National Records of Scotland (NRS) figures for 2022 to 2024, Glasgow residents continue to experience some of the lowest healthy life expectancy rates in the country.

Women in the city can expect to live 56.1 years in good health, while men can expect just 55.7 years- both more than three years below the Scottish averages of 59.4 for women and 59.1 for men.

These figures represent only minor changes from the previous reporting period, with women dropping from 56.3 years and men rising slightly from 55.5 years.

Phillipa Haxton, head of vital events statistics at NRS, said: "While life expectancy increased to around pre-pandemic levels for both females and males, healthy life expectancy has not increased.

"This means people are likely to be spending a greater proportion of their life in poor health than in previous years.

"The gap between the most and least deprived communities is even more stark for this measure than it is for life expectancy."

Comparisons within Greater Glasgow highlight the severity of the inequality.

Women in neighbouring East Renfrewshire can expect 68.7 years of good health, 12.6 more than their counterparts in Glasgow.

For men, the gap is 12.2 years, with those in East Renfrewshire enjoying 67.9 healthy years compared to Glasgow’s 55.7.

Of the 10 council areas in and around the city, only North Lanarkshire (52.3 for women, 52.9 for men) fares worse than Glasgow for both sexes.

Glasgow ranks ninth out of 10, ahead of only North Lanarkshire and roughly level with West Dunbartonshire.

Graph showing the statistics (Image: Sourced)

These figures indicate that the average Glaswegian will develop a limiting health condition or disability well before reaching the state pension age of 66.

Nationwide, healthy life expectancy has been on the decline since the mid-2010s.

Women have lost nearly four years of healthy life expectancy, while men have lost three years since 2014 to 2016.

The most deprived communities are especially hard hit.

Women in these areas can expect to spend around 60% of their lives in good health; men fare slightly better at two-thirds.

Their overall life expectancy stands at just 69.8 years.

By contrast, those in the least deprived 10% of communities can expect to spend more than 80 per cent of their lives in good health.

Public health minister Jenni Minto said: "We recognise that stubborn inequalities remain in some communities in Scotland.

"That is why we are laser-focused on tackling child poverty and introducing interventions to help people live longer, healthier lives.

"Eradicating child poverty is the Scottish Government’s driving mission and, thanks to our bold action, Scotland is the only part of the UK where relative child poverty rates fell in the last year."

The Scottish Government’s draft Budget includes measures aimed at addressing these inequalities, such as £50 million per year for whole family support, increases to the Scottish child payment, and £61 million to supercharge action on child poverty across the life of the next Parliament.

Other commitments include an additional £40 million investment in sport and physical activity and record funding for health and social care of nearly £22.5 billion.

Ms Minto said: "We continue to take forward action to reform health services and to tackle population health challenges to address the root causes of health inequalities."

While life expectancy overall has rebounded to near pre-pandemic levels, the figures reveal that people are now spending a greater portion of their lives in poor health.

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