Health in the United Kingdom#Life expectancy

The Nuffield Trust and the Association for Young People's Health produced a report on the health of young people in February 2019, comparing the UK with 18 other similar European countries. They found that the UK had the highest rates of obesity, the highest rate of young people living with a longstanding condition, apart from Finland and Sweden, and, among 11 year olds, very low rates of exercise. However, the UK had some of the lowest smoking, suicide and road accidents.{{cite news |title=International comparisons of health and wellbeing in adolescence and early adulthood |url=https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/research/international-comparisons-of-health-and-wellbeing-in-adolescence-and-early-adulthood |access-date=25 March 2019 |publisher=Nuffield Trust |date=20 February 2019}}

File:Life expectancy by WBG -United Kingdom.png

In 2013, life expectancy at birth was 83 years for women and 79 for men.{{cite web|title=United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|url=http://www.euro.who.int/en/countries/united-kingdom-of-great-britain-and-northern-ireland/data-and-statistics|website=World Health Organization|access-date=24 August 2017}} In 2016, life expectancy was found to be rising more slowly in the UK than in comparable nations.{{Cite news |date=2018-08-07 |title=UK among worst for life expectancy rises |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/health-45096074 |access-date=2023-10-30}}[https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/07/increase-in-uk-life-spans-stalling-at-one-of-fastest-rates-among-20-leading-economies UK life expectancy growth falls faster than other leading nations] The Guardian, 7 August 2018 In 2018, life expectancy in the UK stopped increasing.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45638646 Life expectancy progress in UK 'stops for first time'] BBC There were 50,100 excess deaths during winter 2017/2018, mostly among older people, and the highest number since 1976; cold weather and problems with flu vaccine were blamed.{{Cite news |last=Campbell |first=Denis |date=2018-11-30 |title=Excess winter deaths in England and Wales highest since 1976 |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/30/excess-winter-deaths-in-england-and-wales-highest-since-1976 |access-date=2023-10-30 |issn=0261-3077}} In January 2024, The BMJ reported that data is suggesting that "life expectancy in the UK seems to have reduced by around half a year per person", partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.{{cite journal |last1= O’Dowd |first1= Adrian |date= 12 January 2024 |title= Covid-19 has cut UK life expectancy by around half a year, data suggest |url= https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj.q78 |journal= BMJ |volume= 384|issue= |pages= q78 |doi= 10.1136/bmj.q78 |pmid= 38216221 |access-date= 20 November 2024}} A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that was published in November 2024 indicated that the United Kingdom has the worst life expectancy in western Europe.{{cite news |last= Searles |first= Michael |date= 18 November 2024 |title= Britain has worst life expectancy in western Europe |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/18/britain-has-worst-life-expectancy-in-western-europe/ |work= The Daily Telegraph |access-date= 20 November 2024}}

File:First-World-Infant-Mortality-Trends.jpg between 1960 and 2008 for the United Kingdom in comparison with France, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. The overall trend has meant a large improvement in health inside the United Kingdom.]]

Infant mortality rates have been decreasing since the early 1840s, due to general improvements in sanitation and diet and more recently because of improvements in midwifery and neonatal intensive care.{{cite news|title=Childhood mortality in England and Wales: 2015|url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/childhoodinfantandperinatalmortalityinenglandandwales/2015|access-date=24 August 2017|publisher=Office for National Statistics|date=20 April 2017}}

{{Main|Obesity in the United Kingdom}}

The rising rates of childhood obesity were described as a "national emergency" by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in February 2016.{{cite news|last1=Sparrow|first1=Andrew|title=Childhood obesity is a national emergency, says Jeremy Hunt|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/07/childhood-obesity-national-emergency-jeremy-hunt-health-sugar-tax-jamie-oliver|access-date=20 February 2016|work=The Guardian|date=7 February 2016}} 28.1% of adults in the United Kingdom were recognised as clinically obese with a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 30 in 2014.{{cite web|title=Prevalence of obesity, ages 18+, 2010-2014|url=http://gamapserver.who.int/gho/interactive_charts/ncd/risk_factors/obesity/atlas.html|publisher=World Health Organization|access-date=25 February 2016}} The increasing numbers of people with obesity leads to the growing number of diabetes diagnoses.{{Cite journal |date=2022-07-26 |title=Diabetes: putting people at the heart of services |url=https://evidence.nihr.ac.uk/collection/diabetes-putting-people-at-the-heart-of-services/ |journal=NIHR Evidence |language=en |doi=10.3310/nihrevidence_52026|s2cid=251299176 |url-access=subscription }}

Diabetes is a major concern in the UK as the number of diagnoses have doubled in the past 15 years. In 2021 there were 4.1 million people in the UK diagnosed with diabetes, 90% of them having type 2. There were a further 1 million people with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes and 13.6 million people were at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, half of which could be prevented.

{{Main|Smoking in the United Kingdom}}

In 1974, 45% of the British population smoked. The smoking rate was down to 30% by the early-1990s, 21% by 2010, and 19.3% by 2013, the lowest level for eighty years.{{cite news |author= |title=Ministers aim to halve number of people smoking by 2020 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8490490.stm |work=BBC News |date=1 February 2010 |access-date=4 April 2014}} In 2015, smoking rates in England had fallen to 16.9%.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37406105|title=Smoking rates in England fall to lowest on record|date=20 September 2016|work=BBC News}}

{{Main|Cancer in the United Kingdom}}

There were 361,216 cancer diagnoses in 2014 in the United Kingdom.{{cite news|title=Cancer Is More Common Than Marriage Or Having A First Baby In The UK|url=http://www.ibtimes.com/cancer-more-common-marriage-or-having-first-baby-uk-2563566|access-date=10 July 2017|work=International Business Times|date=10 July 2017}} Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK (around 56,000 women and 375 men are diagnosed with the disease every year).{{Cite web |title=Facts and figures |url=https://www.breastcanceruk.org.uk/about-breast-cancer/facts-figures-and-qas/facts-and-figures/ |access-date=2023-10-20 |website=Breast Cancer UK |language=en-GB}} Cancer Research UK estimates that 15% of UK cancers are caused by smoking,{{cite web | url=https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/risk#heading-Two | title= Cancer risk statistics, subheading Tobacco statistics | date= 13 May 2015 | accessdate=18 August 2022| publisher= Cancer Research UK}} and 3-4% of UK cancers are related to alcohol consumption.{{cite web | url=https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/risk#heading-One | title= Cancer risk statistics, subheading Preventable cancers | date= 13 May 2015 | accessdate=18 August 2022| publisher= Cancer Research UK}}

{{Main|Mental health in the United Kingdom}}

In 2014, the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey reported that 17% of those surveyed in England met the criteria for a common mental disorder. About 37% of those were accessing mental health treatment. Those more severely affected were more likely to be accessing services.{{cite news|title=Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey: Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, England, 2014 |url=http://content.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB21748|access-date=17 July 2017|publisher=NHS Digital|date=29 September 2016}} In 2017 a survey found that 65% of Britons have experienced a mental health problem, with 26% having had a panic attack and 42% said they had suffered from depression.[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mental-health-problems-anxiety-depression-men-women-adults-two-thirds-experience-foundation-a7720266.html Two thirds of adults experience mental health problems such as anxiety or depression, survey finds]. The Independent. Published 8 May 2017. Retrieved 26 January 2018.

Rates of severe anxiety and depression among unemployed people increased from 10.1% in June 2013 to 15.2% in March 2017. In the general population the increase was from 3.4% to 4.1%.{{cite news|title=Government welfare cuts blamed for 50% surge in mental health issues among unemployed|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/cuts-mental-health-unemployed-rise-government-welfare-reforms-blamed-a7841941.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/cuts-mental-health-unemployed-rise-government-welfare-reforms-blamed-a7841941.html |archive-date=2022-05-09 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=17 July 2017|work=The Independent|date=17 July 2017}}

{{Main|Suicide in the United Kingdom}}

5,608 and 5,675 people aged 15 and over died by suicide in 2009 to 2011 respectively.{{cite news|title=UK suicide rate rises 'significantly' in 2011|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21141815|access-date=18 March 2013|newspaper=BBC News|date=22 January 2013}}{{cite web|title=Suicide rates in the United Kingdom, 2006 to 2010|url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_254113.pdf|publisher=Office for National Statistics|access-date=18 March 2013}} The share of deaths percentage wise in which suicide has contributed to has roughly remained under 1% since the 1990's.{{Cite journal |last1=Ritchie |first1=Hannah |author-link=Hannah Ritchie |last2=Roser |first2=Max |author2-link=Max Roser |last3=Ortiz-Ospina |first3=Esteban |date=2015-06-15 |title=Suicide |url=https://ourworldindata.org/suicide |journal=Our World in Data}} The most recent figures for 2019 show that suicides made up 0.9% of deaths in the United Kingdom.

{{Main|Drug-related deaths in the United Kingdom}}

{{Main|HIV/AIDS in the United Kingdom}}

An estimated 101,200 people are living with HIV in the UK (0.16% of the population), 13% of whom are unaware of their infection. Of those, 69% are men and 31% were women.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/602942/HIV_in_the_UK_report.pdf|title=HIV in the UK|date=1 December 2016|website=UK Government|publisher=Public Health England|access-date=27 August 2017}} Just under half of those living with HIV are gay or bisexual men. 1 in 7 gay or bisexual men in London are living with HIV, compared to 1 in 25 in the rest of the UK and less than 1 in 500 for the general population.

6,095 people were newly diagnosed during 2015, a trend which has remained relatively constant since 2010.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/602945/HIV_diagnoses_late_diagnoses_and_numbers_accessing_treatment_and_care.pdf|title=HIV diagnoses, late diagnoses and numbers accessing treatment and care|date=October 2016|website=UK Government|publisher=Public Health England|access-date=27 August 2017}} An estimated 39% of diagnoses were late (likely to have been living with the virus for over three years).File:Disabled population pyramid in 2021 in England and Wales.svg

{{Main|Disability in the United Kingdom}}

In 2014 more than 11 million British people (excluding Northern Ireland) were reported to have a long term impairment or disability. The incidence rises with age. About 6% of children, 16% of working age adults and 45% of pensioners are reported as having a disability.{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-facts-and-figures/disability-facts-and-figures |title=Disability facts and figures |publisher=Department for Work and Pensions - Office for Disability Issues |date=16 January 2014 |access-date=5 June 2017}}

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a one-year drop in UK life expectancy. A 2024 study by the King's Fund found that life expectancy at birth in England fell in 2020 by about 1.3 years for males and 0.9 years for females – the largest decline seen since World War II – before stabilising in subsequent years.{{Cite web |last=Raleigh |first=Veena |date=10 April 2024 |title=What Is Happening To Life Expectancy In England? |url=https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/whats-happening-life-expectancy-england |access-date=2025-04-20 |website=The King's Fund |language=en}}

{{See also|COVID-19 vaccination programme in the United Kingdom}}

In the United Kingdom, the purchase and distribution of vaccines is managed centrally, and recommended vaccines are provided for free by the NHS.{{cite journal | vauthors = Freed GL | title = Vaccine policies across the pond: looking at the U.K. and U.S. systems | journal = Health Affairs | volume = 24 | issue = 3 | pages = 755–7 | year = 2005 | pmid = 15886170 | doi = 10.1377/hlthaff.24.3.755 | doi-access = free }}

The Black Report, published by the Conservative government in 1980, highlighted the relationship between socioeconomic status and health outcomes. It demonstrated greater inequality of mortality between occupational classes I and V both in 1970–72 and 1959–63 than in 1949–53.{{cite book|title=Black Report|date=1980|publisher=HMSO|location=London|url=https://www.sochealth.co.uk/national-health-service/public-health-and-wellbeing/poverty-and-inequality/the-black-report-1980/the-black-report-3-trends-in-inequality-of-health/|access-date=24 August 2017}}

{{Main article|Effects of climate change on health in the United Kingdom}}

{{excerpt|Climate change in the United Kingdom|Health effects}}

• Healthcare in the United Kingdom
• Health in England
• History of public health in the United Kingdom
• Royal Society for Public Health
• UK Health Security Agency
• Office for Health Improvement and Disparities

{{reflist}}

• Beier, Lucinda McCray. For their own good : the transformation of English working-class health culture, 1880-1970 (2008) [https://archive.org/details/fortheirowngoodt0000beie online]

• Berridge, Virginia. Health and Society in Britain since 1939 (1999)

• Brand. Jeanne L. Doctors and the state: the British medical profession and government action in public health, 1870-1912 (Johns Hopkins UP, 1965).

• Carpenter, Mary Wilson. Health, Medicine, and Society in Victorian England (Bloomsbury, 2009)

• Durey, Michael. The return of the plague : British society and the cholera, 1831-2 (1979) [https://archive.org/details/returnofplaguebr0000dure online]

• Eyler, John M. Sir Arthur Newsholme and State Medicine, 1885-1935 (Cambridge University Press, 1997).
• Finer, S.E. The life and times of Sir Edwin Chadwick (1952).
• Frazer. W.M. A history of English public health, 1834 - 1939 (1950).

• Hardy, Anne. Health and medicine in Britain since 1860 (2001)

• Harris, James Jeffrey. "Body Politics: A History of Public Health and Politics in Britain, 1885-1922" (PhD dissertation, The Ohio State University, 2017) [https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=osu1510659104333359&disposition=inline online].

• Lambert, R. Sir John Simon 1816-1904 and English social administration (1963).

• Porter, Roy. Disease, medicine, and society in England, 1550-1860 (1995)

• Sigsworth, Michael, and Michael Worboys. "The public's view of public health in mid-Victorian Britain." Urban History 21.2 (1994): 237-250. [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/urban-history/article/abs/publics-view-of-public-health-in-midvictorian-britain/99DACDB6503272A553D2F353AD16771C online]

• Smith, F. B. The People's health. 1830-1910 (1979).
• Warren, Michael D. A chronology of state medicine, public health, welfare and related services in Britain 1066-1999 (2000) [https://archive.org/details/chronologyofstat0000warr/page/n2/mode/1up online]

• Webster, Charles. The National Health Service : a political history (2002) and that'll work better.[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthse0000websonline]

• Wohl, Anthony S. Endangered lives: public health in Victorian Britain (1983) [https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/full/10.5555/19842015295 online].

• Schneider, Dona, and David E. Lilienfeld, eds. Public Health: The Development of a Discipline, From the Age of Hippocrates to the Progressive Era (2008), Long excerpts from. 24 major documents. before 1920, from the United States and United Kingdom. [https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=4xv0scbWSAUC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Schneider,+Dona,+and+David+E.+Lilienfeld&ots=j-GP3XunKj&sig=0SKekWocw8u5gK7nKY0CNp1kzZE excerpts]
• Public health: the development of a discipline. Vol. 2 Twentieth century challenges (2011), covers 1920 to 2010.

• Simon, John, Sir. English sanitary institutions, reviewed in their course of development, and in some of their political and social relations (1890) [https://archive.org/details/englishsanitaryi00simorich online[

• National Statistics: The health of adult Britain, 1841-1994 (1997) [https://archive.org/details/healthofadultbri0000unse/page/n2/mode/1up online]

{{United Kingdom topics}}

{{Europe topic|Health in}}