A recent analysis from the Health Foundation has revealed a sharp drop in healthy life expectancy across Britain – that is, the number of years people live without significant illness or disability. The country is now going backwards compared to most other wealthy nations, and the data makes for grim reading.
According to the findings, people in the UK enjoy good health for a considerably shorter period than they did just ten years ago. The think tank’s research, reported by the Guardian, shows that while other countries have seen steady improvements, Britain has slid down the international rankings. Out of 21 wealthy nations assessed for healthy life expectancy, the UK now sits in 20th place. Only the United States performs worse. At the top of the table are Japan, Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Australia, Italy, France, Denmark, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Finland, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Portugal, and Germany – all ahead of Britain.
The latest analysis from the Health Foundation compared healthy life expectancy across these 21 countries and found that, on average, the other 20 saw an increase of four-tenths of a year. Britain went the other way. For men, healthy life expectancy dropped from 62.9 years in the period 2012–2014 to just 60.7 years in 2022–2024. For women, the fall was from 63.7 to 60.9 years. That means British men and women are now losing around two to three years of healthy life compared to a decade ago.
Data from the Office for National Statistics paints an even starker picture of declining well-being. The proportion of life spent in good health has shrunk from 79% to 77% for men, and from 77% to 73% for women. In practical terms, this means that in more than 90% of British regions, people are falling ill before they reach the state pension age of 66. So a majority of Britons can now expect to spend a significant chunk of their later working life and early retirement in poor health.
So why is this happening? Experts point to several grim trends. Dr Jennifer Dixon, chief executive of the Health Foundation, said the findings exposed a painful truth: Britain is going backwards on health. She described the warning lights on the dashboard as glowing red. She noted that the UK is now the most obese country in Western Europe. Mental health problems have risen to unprecedented levels, and more people than ever before are living with long-term chronic conditions. There is no single cause, but poor diet, a stagnant healthcare system struggling with waiting lists, and widening inequalities have all played a part. The government’s levelling up agenda, meant to tackle regional health disparities, has so far failed to reverse these declines. Recent news stories have also highlighted that children born after 1 January 2009 will never legally buy cigarettes – a sign of how serious the state of public health has become – but critics argue such measures barely scratch the surface. Without a major shift in policy and investment, Britain’s slide down the global health rankings looks set to continue.
