Life expectancy is recovering, but health isn’t – strengthening the case for prevention-led longevity policy.
Imagine reaching your late 70s or early 80s, only to realize that nearly a quarter of your adult life has been affected by chronic pain, limited mobility or mental strain. That is no longer a hypothetical future for many people in the UK according to the Office for National Statistics.
New data from the ONS show that healthy life expectancy (HLE) has fallen to its lowest level since records began in 2011–2013. For the period 2022–2024, people born in the UK can expect just over 60 years of life in “good” or “very good” health – 60.7 years for men and 60.9 years for women [1].
Timing makes it especially unsettling. These declines come even as overall life expectancy has started to rise again after the worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The years are coming back, but the health that should fill them is not.
Healthy life expectancy reflects how people experience their own bodies and minds, whether they feel capable of working, socializing, moving freely and living independently. Think of it as the difference between a car that still runs and one that runs smoothly. Life expectancy tells us the engine still turns over. Healthy life expectancy tells us whether the ride is still usable.
Compared with 2019–2021, healthy life expectancy has dropped by 1.8 years for men and 2.5 years for women. Greg Ceely, head of population health monitoring at the ONS, summed up the shift bluntly: “Back in 2011, when the ONS first collected this data, men were expected to remain in good health until around the age of 63, and women 64. Today, they could both expect around 61 years of healthy life [2].” Across a population, losing even one healthy year is significant. Losing two is seismic.
The data also underline a familiar but unresolved truth: where you live in the UK still determines how long you stay well. In England, the South East reports the highest healthy life expectancy – 63.0 years for men and 64.3 years for women. In the North East, those figures fall to around 57 years for both sexes.
At the local level, the contrasts become harder to ignore. In Richmond upon Thames, residents can expect nearly 70 healthy years. In Blackpool, men average barely 51. In Hartlepool, women face similar odds.
Individual choices alone are not what this is all about. It reflects decades of uneven investment in housing, employment, education, transport and local services – factors that quietly affect health long before anyone enters a clinic.
Perhaps the most revealing statistic is the growing gap between lifespan and healthspan. Between 2020 and 2022, male life expectancy stood at 78.8 years, but only 62.4 years of those were spent in good health. That leaves 16.4 years, or roughly one-fifth of life, lived in poor health. For women, the gap is wider still: over 20 years, nearly a quarter of a life.
A 2024 analysis from the King’s Fund captured the paradox clearly: “Not only has life expectancy stalled, but males and females spend more years in poor health.” Women, despite living longer, spend a higher proportion of their lives managing illness or disability. This is longevity without quality. A longer epilogue, not a better story.
Public health leaders have been quick to frame the findings as a call to action. The Royal Society for Public Health described the data as “a wake-up call for policymakers to address the drivers of ill health, not just the consequences.”
Dr Jamie O’Halloran of the Institute for Public Policy Research went further, arguing that while NHS reform matters, most health outcomes are shaped outside the healthcare system itself. Housing quality, job security, community design and environmental exposure all play decisive roles. Without tackling those root causes, he warned, health gains will remain elusive.
Longevity.Technology: Extending life without extending health simply prolongs decline. These figures make a compelling case for embedding prevention, early intervention and healthspan metrics into policy, funding and innovation strategies. Longevity should not be measured by how long the lights stay on, but by how long people can live with agency, function and dignity.
The UK’s falling healthy life expectancy is a warning, but also an opportunity. Shift focus upstream, invest earlier and longevity can become not just longer life, but a better one.
[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/healthylifeexpectancyukbetween2011to2013and2022to2024
[2] https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/healthy-life-expectancy-declines-again-2026a10005fz?form=fpf
