Life expectancy set back by a decade for British babies born during the pandemic

PANDEMIC babies have the same life expectancy as those born in 2010 after a decade of progress was wiped out by Covid.

New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed that a boy born between 2020 and 2022 is expected to live for 78 years and seven months, while a girl born in the same time period is expected to live for 82 years and seven months.

For males this has fallen by nine months since data from between 2017 and 2019, when life expectancy was at a high of 79 years and almost four months.

And for females it is down by just over five months from a high of 83 years during the same period.

It means life expectancy for children born during the pandemic are at levels not seen for a decade, from between 2010 and 2012, following years of increases.

The ONS said the pandemic had led to increased mortality in 2020 and 2021, and that is now reflected in the latest life expectancy estimates, but added that progress had been getting slower pre-pandemic too.

The ONS also said it did not mean a baby born between 2020 and 2022 would have a shorter life, because life expectancy can increase as mortality improves over time.

Veena Raleigh, senior fellow at The King’s Fund think tank, said the data “lays bare the impact that the pandemic has had on life expectancy in the UK”.

“Although most countries globally experienced devastating death tolls from Covid-19, several studies have shown that excess mortality in the UK during the pandemic exceeded that of most comparable western European and other high-income countries,” she said.

“Much of the heavy burden of sickness and death in the UK is caused by preventable conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and diabetes. Worryingly, mortality rates from heart disease and diabetes have been rising during the pandemic.

“This load of preventable sickness and death falls unequally, hitting deprived communities the hardest.”

Pamela Cobb, an analysis expert at the ONS, said: “A fall in life expectancy does not mean that a baby born in 2020 to 2022 will go on to live a shorter life.

The average lifespan of a baby born today will be determined by changes in mortality across their lifetime.

“If mortality rates improve, then life expectancy will go back up.”

The ONS describes life expectancy as a population-based statistical measure of the average number of years a person has before death.

‘Excess mortality in the UK during the pandemic exceeded that of most comparable countries’