Life expectancy and long term illness

Healthy life expectancy is a good measure of the quality of life years in a population.

• Life expectancy is over 79 years for men and over 83 years for women - both similar to national. 
  
  
• After remaining consistent for male and marginally increasing for women in recent years, life expectancy has now fallen slightly for both.
  
  
• Compared with national, life expectancy is higher than national for women in both South Staffordshire and Stafford, but is now lower for Newcastle-under-Lyme. Male life expectancy is lower for Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Life expectancy at birth, 2018 - 2020

Source: Office for National Statistics

Healthy life expectancy

• Healthy life expectancy in Staffordshire is nearly 62 years for men and 64 years for women – both have fallen by 1.8 years and 1.1 years respectively.
  
  
• Male healthy life expectancy is the third worst among similar authorities.
  
  
• On average in Staffordshire women spend 19.7 years of lives in poor health, and men spend just over 18 years in poor health.
  
  
• Symptoms from “long COVID”, which persist weeks or months after the infection has gone may impact healthy life expectancy and result in more time spent in ill-health.  This is yet to be reflected in the data

Healthy life expectancy, 2017 - 2019

Source: Office for National Statistics

Limiting long-term illness

• Almost 1 in 4 (22%) adults have a limiting long-term illness, as well as over half (53%) of older people – statistically higher than national.
  
  
• Half of Staffordshire’s wards have a higher-than-average proportion of all adults living with a limiting long-term illness, and around a third for older people.
  
  
• This ranges from 11% in Hawks Green (Cannock Chase) to 32% in Biddulph South (Staffordshire Moorlands).

By 2030 over 19,000 more Staffordshire residents living with a limiting long-term illness.

N.B This indicator measures the self-reported number of people responding to the question in the 2011 Census, indicating they had a long-term illness or disability which limits their daily activity or work.

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