Press resources.
Lifemap is an independent public-data project mapping life expectancy and healthy life expectancy across the UK's 380 council areas. Journalists are free to use its figures, screenshots, charts and extracts with attribution.
Healthy years, by neighbourhood deprivation.
In England, women in the most deprived tenth of neighbourhoods can expect 48.2 years in good health, against 68.5 in the least deprived tenth; ONS puts the difference at 20.3 years. For men the figures are 49.8 and 69.2, and ONS puts the difference at 19.5, calculated before rounding. Source: ONS, Healthy life expectancy by national area deprivation, England, 2022–2024 (released 15 April 2026).
What Lifemap is, in one paragraph.
Lifemap is an independent public-data project that shows how life expectancy and healthy life expectancy vary across the UK. It is built from official statistics published by the Office for National Statistics, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and the devolved governments. Enter a postcode, or pick a council, to see how many years people there live on average, how many of those years are lived in good health, and how the area compares with the rest of the country. The figures describe populations, not individuals. Across UK councils, the range in years lived in good health is much wider than the range in years of life.
Available for direct attribution.
"Most people know that life expectancy varies across the UK. Fewer know that the gap in years lived in good health is wider still. Lifemap puts the official figures for every council in one place, so anyone can look up their own area and see how it compares."
This quote is cleared for direct use in print, broadcast and online coverage. Further comment and on-the-record interviews are available on request.
We aim to reply within 24 hours on UK working days.
Key findings at a glance.
Each figure below is computed from the Lifemap dataset when the site is built, so it always matches the council pages. Sources are given under each figure and listed in full on the sources page.
60.7 / 60.9 years
Healthy life expectancy at birth in the UK: 60.7 years for men and 60.9 for women. With life expectancy at 79.2 and 83.0 years, men can expect to spend 18.5 years in poorer health on average, and women 22.1.
Source: ONS, Healthy life expectancy, UK, and Life expectancy for local areas of the UK, 2022–2024.
19.5 / 20.3 years
Difference in healthy life expectancy at birth between England's most and least deprived tenths of neighbourhoods, as published by ONS: 19.5 years for men (49.8 against 69.2) and 20.3 years for women (48.2 against 68.5). ONS calculates the difference before rounding, so it can differ by a tenth from the rounded figures.
Source: ONS, Healthy life expectancy by national area deprivation, England, 2022–2024 (range between the most and least deprived deciles).
22.0 / 24.0 years
Range in healthy life expectancy across the 216 councils ONS publishes it for. Men: 50.9 in Blackpool to 72.9 in the Orkney Islands. Women: 50.1 in Merthyr Tydfil to 74.1 in the Orkney Islands. Figures for councils with small populations have wide confidence intervals.
Source: ONS, Healthy life expectancy, UK (released 19 February 2026), 2022–2024, upper-tier and single-tier councils.
3.2% – 20.8%
Adults who smoke, across English councils: from 3.2% in Woking to 20.8% in Boston, against 10.9% for England as a whole. These are survey estimates; those for smaller councils have wide margins of error.
Source: OHID Fingertips indicator 92443 (Annual Population Survey), 2022–24. District and single-tier councils.
73.7 years
Lowest male life expectancy at birth of any UK council: Blackpool. That is 5.5 years below the UK figure of 79.2, and 10.0 years below the highest, in Hart.
Source: ONS, Life expectancy for local areas of the UK, 2022–2024.
78.7 years
Lowest female life expectancy at birth of any UK council: Glasgow City. That is 4.3 years below the UK figure of 83.0, and 8.4 years below the highest, in Kensington and Chelsea.
Source: ONS, Life expectancy for local areas of the UK, 2022–2024.
All council figures are estimates with 95% confidence intervals, and neighbouring places in a ranking are often within each other's margins of error. "Lowest" and "highest" describe the published estimates. Figures are population averages, never predictions for an individual. See the methodology.
Downloadable resources.
Free to use with attribution under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Press kit
A printable brief with the summary, quote, key findings, methodology and attribution. Also readable as a web page.
Dataset (CSV and JSON)
380 council records (151 English upper-tier councils, 164 English districts, 32 Scottish councils, 22 Welsh principal areas and 11 Northern Ireland districts): life expectancy and healthy life expectancy for men and women with ONS 95% confidence intervals, figures at 65, five lifestyle measures and, for England and Wales, ONS’s census-based healthy life expectancy. The data page also has the trend series, a file for each council, a data dictionary and a suggested citation. Dataset version: 26 September 2026.
uk_la_data.csv (380 rows · 104 KB) uk_la_data.json (380 records · 438 KB)
Councils ranked
8 measures, each ranked within its nation and tier of council, with confidence intervals and a comparison with the nation where ONS publishes intervals.
Screenshots
9 high-resolution captures of the homepage, results, map, story, press page, embed and mobile views.
Embeddable chart
An iframe bar chart for any set of councils and any measure, with a snippet generator and live preview.
Screenshots · free to use with attribution
Each thumbnail shows the top of the capture and opens the full-resolution PNG. Screenshots show the site as it looked when captured; for current figures, use the live pages.
Embed a chart.
Choose a measure and the councils to show, then copy the snippet into your CMS (an HTML block, a WordPress code block or a Substack embed). The chart loads the current Lifemap dataset and carries the attribution line. It does not set cookies or run analytics.
<iframe src="https://lifemap.org.uk/embed/?metric=hle&areas=blackpool,glasgow%20city,manchester,westminster,richmond%20upon%20thames,orkney%20islands&sort=value&height=420"
width="100%" height="420"
style="border:1px solid #E3DFD5"
loading="lazy" title="Lifemap chart: Healthy life expectancy"></iframe>Built from official open data.
Every figure traces back to published UK statistics. Reuse is permitted under the Open Government Licence v3.0 with attribution.
Office for National Statistics
Life expectancy for local areas of the UK (2022–2024); Healthy life expectancy, UK (2022–2024, released 19 February 2026, all four nations); Healthy life expectancy by national area deprivation, England (2022–2024, released 15 April 2026).
OHID Fingertips
Adults who smoke: Annual Population Survey, 2022–24 (indicator 92443); Adults overweight or obese (BMI 25 or over): Active Lives Adult Survey, 2024/25 (indicator 93088); Adults physically active (150+ minutes a week): Active Lives Adult Survey, 2024/25 (indicator 93014); Adults eating five portions of fruit and veg a day: Active Lives Adult Survey, 2024/25 (indicator 93982); Adults drinking over 14 units a week: Health Survey for England, 2015–18 (indicator 92778).
SSCQ · SHeS · PHW · NSW · HSNI
Scotland: Scottish Surveys Core Questions (smoking) and Scottish Health Survey. Wales: Public Health Wales's Public Health Outcomes Framework and the National Survey for Wales. Northern Ireland: Health Survey Northern Ireland, published for the 5 Health and Social Care Trusts and shown as trust figures. Periods by nation are on the methodology page.
Postcodes.io · OGL v3.0
Open postcode-to-council lookup; boundaries from the ONS Open Geography Portal (contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right). Full list: lifemap.org.uk/sources/.
Angles we can help with.
We can provide local extracts, chart exports and comment for any of these.
- Angle 01
Healthy years and total years →
Why the range in healthy life expectancy between UK councils is wider than the range in life expectancy.
- Angle 02
Neighbouring councils, different figures →
How much healthy life expectancy differs between councils in the same region.
- Angle 03
What healthy life expectancy measures →
Living longer is not the same as living in good health: how ONS builds the figure, and its limits.
- Angle 04
Deprivation and health →
How healthy life expectancy tracks neighbourhood deprivation in England and Wales.
- Angle 05
Public data and open government →
What civic data projects can do with ONS, OHID and devolved statistics under the Open Government Licence.
Press enquiries and corrections.
We aim to reply to journalists within 24 hours on UK working days, sooner for outlets on deadline: please say so in the subject line. If you think a figure is wrong, tell us and we will check it against the source.
For local extracts, chart exports or on-the-record comment, please include:
- Outlet and deadline
- Story angle or working headline
- The councils you are interested in
- Preferred format (PDF, CSV, PNG, embed)