Dundee’ s life expectancy rate plunges

Dundee has recorded one of the biggest decreases in life expectancy, with the average for men now around three years below the Scottish average.

Baby boys born in Dundee will live for an average of 73.8 years – three years less than the male Scottish average of 76.8.

Men born in the city have the second-lowest average life expectancy rate in the country.

For women, the average life expectancy estimate in Dundee is 79.4 years as of 2020, compared to a Scottish average of 81.

This compares with 82.9 years for women and 79 years for men in Perth and Kinross.

New data from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) shows a fall in the average life expectancy across Scotland.

This has partly been blamed on Covid-19 and drug-related deaths.

The figures for 2018 to 2020 show a decrease of around 17.6 weeks for males and 6.1 weeks for females since last year’s estimates.

It represents the biggest annual decrease since the series of life expectancy estimates began in 1980-1982.

Deprivation continues to have an impact on life expectancy, with males living in the least deprived areas having 13.5 years greater life expectancy than those living in the most deprived areas, and females 10.2 years more.

The NRS said this gap has only grown in recent years, with Scotland recording the lowest life expectancy at birth of all UK countries.

The sharp decrease was also attributed to coronavirus, with the high number of excess deaths in 2020 blamed for the drop.

Drug-related deaths were also said to have had a negative impact on the figures.

Julie Ramsay, head of vital events statistics at NRS, said: Our analysis shows that Covid-19 deaths accounted for the vast majority of the fall in life expectancy for both males and females, with drugrelated deaths also having a negative impact on life expectancy for males.

“This measure of life expectancy provides an important summary of the health of the population and helps to show how this is changing over time.

“Increases in life expectancy point to a healthier population while reductions point to a decline in population health.

“Covid-19 has clearly driven a significant increase in deaths and this life expectancy measure will provide important evidence as to whether the impact of the pandemic is a one-off shock or whether it will have a sustained impact on mortality.”

New figures recording the number of deaths where coronavirus was mentioned on death certificates suggested the death toll in Scotland stood at 10,826 deaths as of September 19.

PROSPECTS: Deprivation continues to have an impact on life expectancy.