Life expectancy in Scotland is the lowest in Western Europe

Life expectancy in Scotland remains the lowest in Western Europe and lower than it was before the pandemic – despite a slight increase last year, official figures have revealed.

Data from the National Register of Scotland (NRS) revealed that women born from 2021 to 2023 can expect to live for 80.9 years, while the figure for men is 76.9 years.

It represents an increase of seven weeks for women and 14 weeks for men, compared to the 2020 to 2022 estimate, but remains lower than the years immediately before Covid.

Scotland also still has the lowest life expectancy of the UK’s home countries, with English men and women living on average more than two years.

The NRS also stated that Scotland has “the lowest life expectancy of any Western European country”.

Dr Sandesh Gulhane, Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary, said: “After more than 17 years of SNP government, Scotland is still the sick man of Europe. This is a damning indictment of the crushing failures of successive SNP health secretaries.

“Under his watch, Scotland has the worst drug death rate in Europe and alcohol deaths are at their worst since 2008. Cancer waiting times have not been met for more than a decade and one in six Scots are languishing on NHS waiting lists.”

Dame Jackie Baillie, spokeswoman for the Scottish Labor Party, said: “After 17 years in power, this SNP government must explain why Scotland is languishing at the bottom of the Western European life expectancy league table and falling behind other decentralized nations.”

The NRS report states that between 2012 and 2014 life expectancy in Scotland increased thanks to fewer people dying from circulatory disease.

However, this improvement then began to slow and other causes of death increased, including medications and Alzheimer’s disease, leading to a “stagnation”.

From 2017 to 2019, life expectancy began to decline, falling by 18.2 weeks for women and 19.4 weeks for men.

The NRS said this was mainly due to Covid, but there were also increases in other causes of death, particularly circulatory conditions.

Their report also states that life expectancy is “strongly linked” to wealth, with women in Scotland’s poorest communities living 10.5 years less than those in the richest communities. The difference for men was 13.2 years.

Broken down by local authority area, Glasgow City Council had the lowest life expectancy for women and men from 2021 to 2023 – 78.3 years for women and 73.6 years for men.

The neighboring council of East Renfrewshire had the highest life expectancy in Scotland, with women in the area expected to live to 84.5 years and men to 81 years. Overall, numbers were highest in remote rural areas and lowest in cities.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Today’s figures show a welcome increase in life expectancy – the biggest annual improvement in the last decade.

“We are determined to go further, which is why we are focused on action to drive improvements in population health, which will help combat health inequalities.”

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