Official statistics · ONS and OHID · 2022–2024

How many healthy years does your postcode get?

Lifemap uses official UK open data to show how life expectancy and healthy life expectancy change across the country, from one council area to the next.

Postcodes, postcode districts (such as SW1A) and council names all work. No signup. No ads. No personal prediction.
Try

Lifemap shows averages for council areas, not a personal estimate. For UK averages by age and sex, see the official ONS life expectancy calculator 

FIG. 01 · two councils · 1 sq = 1 year
A life, mapped
Same country. Fifteen fewer healthy years.
Each square is one year of life expectancy at birth. The colour shows whether that year is, on average, lived in good health by people in each council.
Kensington and Chelsea
London borough · England
66.7healthy years of 84.7
Blackpool
Unitary authority · England
51.4healthy years of 76.4
15.3 years' difference in healthy life expectancy at birth between Kensington and Chelsea and Blackpool (average of men and women, 2022–2024).
Healthy years Years in poorer health Beyond life expectancy
§ 01 · COMPARE Two areas · side by side
Comparison

The gap is easier to see side by side.

The UK's health gap becomes clearest when you compare two places. Some of the largest gaps are not between countries, but between communities a few hours apart.

§ 02 · MAP A different map of Britain
National view

The UK looks different when you map healthy years, not just life expectancy.

Life expectancy tells us how long people live. Healthy life expectancy tells us how long they live well.

The interactive map needs JavaScript. Every council's figures are also listed in the area directory.

Council figures

With JavaScript on, the map, its key and a table of every council appear here.

The map shows the UK's 216 upper-tier council areas. England's 164 district councils sit inside its counties: search for one above to see its figures. The full dataset covers 380 council records.

§ 03 · DEPRIVATION The gap inside the country
Deprivation lens

The biggest healthy-life gap is inside the country.

In England, women living in the most deprived 10% of small areas have a healthy life expectancy 20.3 years shorter than women in the least deprived 10% (2022–2024). That is wider than the gap between any two English upper-tier councils for women (19.1 years). The gap is wider than in 2013–2015, when it was 19.1 years. (ONS, published 15 April 2026.)

Healthy-life gap

Source: ONS — Healthy life expectancy by national area deprivation, England (15 April 2026) · Wales. England uses 10 IMD deciles; Wales uses 5 WIMD quintiles. Period: 2022–2024.

Note: the deprivation banding does not come from a single index across the ONS time series (2011–13 to 2015–17 use IMD 2015; 2016–18 to 2021–23 use IMD 2019; 2022–24 uses IMD 2025). Areas can therefore change band between periods because of index revisions as well as real change.

§ 04 · ANALYSIS The statistic most people have never seen
Context

Life expectancy is familiar. Healthy life expectancy is more revealing.

It estimates how long people can expect to live in good general health. Across the UK's 216 council areas with published figures, healthy life expectancy differs by 22.6 years between the highest and the lowest.

FIG. 04·A

The healthy-life gap

Healthy life expectancy (average of men and women, 2022–2024) ranges from 50.9 years in Merthyr Tydfil to 73.5 years in Orkney Islands. Estimates for councils with small populations have wide margins of error.

Orkney Islands · 73.5 healthy of 81.1 Merthyr Tydfil · 50.9 healthy of 77.4
FIG. 04·B

Within one city

Across London's 32 boroughs with published figures, healthy life expectancy ranges from 58.0 years in Greenwich to 69.8 in Richmond upon Thames: a spread of 11.8 years within one city.

Greenwich · 58.0 Richmond upon Thames · 69.8 Healthy life expectancy, years
FIG. 04·C

The lifestyle layer

Adult smoking, weight, physical activity, diet and drinking also vary widely between English councils: part of the backdrop to the differences in healthy years. Bars show the lowest to highest council figure.

Smoking 3–21% Overweight or obese 40–78% Physically active 51–80% Five a day 18–47% Drinking over 14 units 8–41%
§ 05 · METHODOLOGY Transparent by design
Sources

Built from official open data.

Download the data, read the methodology, or follow every chart back to its source.

Primary data

Office for National Statistics

Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy at birth for every UK council area, 2022–2024.

Lifestyle figures

OHID and national surveys

Adult smoking, weight, physical activity, diet and drinking: OHID Fingertips for England; the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland health surveys elsewhere.

Geography

Postcodes.io

Open postcode-to-council lookup using UK public geography.

Licence

Open Government Licence

All source data is published under the OGL for public reuse and attribution.

Read the full story Download the data Methodology
§ 06 · PRESS For journalists
Press resources

The UK's hidden healthy-life gap, in a format you can file in an hour.

"Most people know that life expectancy varies across the UK. Far fewer realise the gap in healthy years is even more dramatic. Lifemap was built to make that hidden inequality visible in a way anyone can understand, starting with their own postcode."
— Founder, Lifemap

Lifemap is an independent public-data project mapping healthy life expectancy across the UK. Journalists may use screenshots, charts, and local-area extracts with attribution.

press@lifemap.org.uk · Founded 2026 · Built on ONS & OHID Fingertips open data.

Full press resources Dataset and downloads Embeddable charts