Living in a deprived area can cost you seven years

LIVING in a deprived area can take seven years from your life, according to a new documentary.

In Dr Eva Orsmond’s shocking documentary Ireland’s Health Divide, which examines how your address can dictate your lifespan, a series of experts reveal how Irish people are affected by the background they are born into – even when they are in the womb.

And they conclude that those who live in deprived areas of Ireland die roughly seven years earlier than the rest of the population.

In the show, which will air on RTÉ One in the autumn, economic consultant Dr Trutz Hasse, who has mapped deprivation street by street all over the country using the latest census data, says that people living in deprived areas die younger.

‘The difference in life expectancy is roughly seven years, he tells presenter Dr Orsmond.

In his map, Ballsbridge and much of the southside of Dublin is coloured an affluent blue, while unemployment blackspots like Ballymun are coloured red.

He named Moyross in Limerick City as one of the most deprived areas of Ireland – with only one in 100 children going to college. ‘It is highly, highly deprived,’ he said.

He added: ‘If I had to choose a single variable it would be education.

‘In Ireland, the proportion of population that goes to thirdlevel education is now roughly 32%. In Moyross, it is 1% of the population that has third level education.’