The UK has experienced one of the largest slowdowns in life expectancy growth among 20 of the world’s leading economies, official figures show.
For several decades until 2011, life expectancy had been increasing, but since then it has stalled, according to figures published on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This year academics demanded an urgent inquiry into whether austerity policies could be behind a stagnation in life expectancy. They accused the government of repeatedly ignoring concerns about a potential link between death rates and underfunding of the NHS and social care.
The ONS figures show that from 2006 to 2011, life expectancy at birth of females in the UK rose by 12.9 weeks per year, but between 2011 and 2016 the rate of increase dropped by 90% – more than in any other country analysed – to 1.2 weeks per year.
Among males, only in the US was there a greater slowdown in life expectancy growth at birth than in the UK, where improvements dropped by nearly 76%, from 17.3 weeks per year between 2006 and 2011 to 4.2 weeks per year between 2011 and 2016.
Alan Evans, from the ONS, said: “The slowdown in life expectancy improvements that has been observed in the UK since 2011 is also evident in a number of countries across Europe, North America and Australia. However, the UK has experienced one of the largest slowdowns in life expectancy at birth and at age 65 years for males and females.”
The UK experienced steady increases in life expectancy at birth throughout the 20th century. This was attributed to improvements in treating infectious diseases, health improvements in the population as it aged, advances in medical care such as heart disease treatments, and behavioural changes such as a reduction in the rate of smoking in the population.
In 2015 there was a sharp increase in the number of deaths, which led to the first reduction in UK life expectancy at birth in the 21st century.
The latest ONS figures show that the UK also experienced the greatest slowdown among the 20 countries in life expectancy improvements for both males and females aged 65 years.
As with females at birth, there was a 90% reduction in improvements among females aged 65, this time from an increase of 10 weeks per year in 2006-11 to a rise of one week a year in 2011-16. Among men aged 65 there was a 71% reduction from 12 weeks to 3.4 weeks per year.
The other countries examined by the ONS were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.