Written question WQ92372

Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average number of years a person may expect to live and can be calculated for any age.

Healthy life expectancy is an estimate of lifetime spent in “very good” or “good” health, based on how individuals perceive their general health.

Healthy lifestyle behaviours have an influence over self-reported good health and individuals have a responsibility to engage in healthy lifestyles to maintain good health. Such lifestyle behaviours include not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, drinking alcohol within the recommended guidelines, exercising regularly, and eating fruit and vegetables.

Healthy life expectancy at birth was 61.1 years for males and 60.3 years for females in Wales in 2020-2022. This was the lowest country-level estimate across Wales, England, and Northern Ireland, and the lowest for Wales since the time series began in 2011-2013.

For healthy life expectancy at age 65, the recent decreases in healthy life expectancy were much less pronounced than at birth and remained higher in 2020-2022 than the start of the time series in 2011-2013. Females aged 65 in Wales had a healthy life expectancy of 10.8 years in 2020-2022, and males 9.8 years.

The large decreases in healthy life expectancy at birth during the latest 2 data points (2019-2021 and 2020-2022) are likely due to significant effects of COVID-19 on both mortality rates and self-reported general health.

Recently published life expectancy statistics for 2020-2022 reported a drop of 0.4 years for both males and females in overall life expectancy in Wales compared with 2017-2019. The drop in healthy life expectancy is much greater than this, especially for females. This is likely driven by decreases in the proportion of females reporting to be in good or very good health.

Good health is not determined by the health service alone and inequalities in outcomes are a direct consequence of the inequalities across society. We can reduce health inequalities and prevent them from getting worse by targeting their root causes. This means reducing poverty, racism, discrimination, making important health and care services easier to use, and improving the places where we live, work, play and learn.

Socioeconomic disadvantage, such as unemployment and lower income is associated with ill health and is more likely to trigger unhealthy behaviours. Actions to tackle inequalities in health outcomes between our most and least deprived communities are embedded across government. This includes our strategies for reducing poverty, improving air quality, accessing employment, reducing smoking rates and tackling obesity.

There is a role for individuals, health services, as providers of care, as anchor institutions, and as local partners through Public Service Boards. There is work underway to ensure we maximise the role of the NHS in Wales.