For a long life, live close to the capital
THE comfortable careers and high pay of workers in London have produced a ring of long life around the city, according to a new analysis.
It found that nine out of ten of the areas where people enjoy the longest lifespans are among the capital’s well-heeled suburbs. Researchers pointed to healthy lifestyles and good incomes as key reasons.
The findings in a report by financial advisers Willis Towers Watson, underline the links between earnings and lifestyle in pushing up life expectancy.
The average life expectancy in the top ten areas is more than 89 years – a decade higher than the most recent Office for National Statistics figure, which said a baby boy born between 2013 and 2015 could expect to live for 79.2 years.
The Willis Tower Watson findings were averaged out to give a single figure covering both sexes. Only one of the areas at the top of the table is far from London – Harrogate in North Yorkshire.
The bottom ten areas, where life expectations for men and women are put at less than 88 years, are all in the North of England, except for two in Scotland.
According to the ONS, the longest lifespans for men were found in Kensington and Chel- sea in London, at 83.4. For women, it says life expectancy for a baby girl born between 2013 and 2015 is 82.9, with the top female life expectancy, in Hart in Hampshire, reaching 86.7 years.
The figures from yesterday’s financial survey were calculated using statistics including death rates, pension levels and the likelihood that people smoke. The ONS figures are based on death registrations and population estimates.
Stephen Caine of Willis Towers Watson said: ‘There are distinct differences in life expectancy in different areas of the country but in reality it is not the geography itself that is important, it’s the economic and lifestyle factors.
‘What this research highlights is that pensioners living in the outer ring surrounding London are the most likely to have had well- paid jobs and to have enjoyed a relatively comfortable and healthy working life which, alongside other factors, are strongly linked to longer lifespans.’
ONS analysts link increasing lifespans to the decline of heavy industry, which has led to safer and healthier jobs for many men; to improving living standards and healthier lifestyles, and to medical advances and the conquest of many diseases. The ONS has also found that in recent years the lifespans of men have been catching up with those of women.