Life Expectancy, 2007-09

Statistics on life expectancy include data for Wales and the UK for the period up to the end of 2009. The latest release updates the bulletin previously released on 3 December 2009 and is based on statistics released by the ONS on 19 October 2010.

The key points from the latest bulletin are:

In 2007-09:

• Life expectancy at birth in Wales was 77.2 years for males and 81.6 years for females. This is an increase of 0.2 years over the figures for 2006-08 for both men and women.
• Life expectancy at birth in Wales, for both males and females, was lower than England and higher than Scotland and Northern Ireland.
• In Wales, the overall life expectancy has risen since 1991-93 by 3.9 years for males and 2.7 years for females.
• Of the local authorities in Wales, Ceredigion had the highest life expectancy at birth for both males and females.
• Merthyr Tydfil had the lowest life expectancy in Wales for males and Blaenau Gwent the lowest for females.
• Life expectancy figures at local authority level in Wales differed by 5.8 years for males and 5.0 years for females. This difference between the highest and lowest local authority has increased since the early 90’s.

Future plans:
This Statistical Bulletin will be the last one to be released on Life Expectancy in Wales. In future we will release a statistical headline containing the key results for Wales and link to the ONS data on their website.

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 5080
E-mail: stats.healthinfo@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Next update

October 2011 (provisional - to be confirmed on 'Due out Soon' page)