Men and women in Horsham living longer than ever

Men and women in Horsham are living longer than ever before, according to new life expectancy data from the Office of National Statistics.
Horsham town centre. Photo by Eddie Mitchell.Horsham town centre. Photo by Eddie Mitchell.
Horsham town centre. Photo by Eddie Mitchell.

Girls born in the area between 2014 and 2016 can now expect to live for 84.6 years, up slightly from 84.5 in the previous two year period.

For boys, the figure is 82.1 years, which is also a slight increase from from 81.7 in the last survey.

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People have been living longer since the turn of the century. Girls born between 2001 and 2003 in Horsham are predicted to live for 82.7 years, while the rate for boys is 78.7 years.

However, improvement in life expectancy is generally beginning to plateau.

Baby boys born in the UK are now predicted to live to be 79.2 years old on average, rising to 83.1 years for girls. National rates have remained largely unchanged since life expectancy was last assessed in 2013-2015.

Men will live longest in Kensington and Chelsea, according to the data, at 83.7 years - more than a decade longer than men in Glasgow, who are expected to die at 73.4 years of age.

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For women, the top spot also goes to an affluent London borough, Camden, where women born after 2014 should live for 86.8 years.The lowest is West Dunbartonshire, where the figure drops to 78.8 years.

In recent decades, women have generally lived longer than men due to a range of lifestyle factors.

Historically, men tended to smoke and drink more heavily than women, and are more prone to developing heart disease in later life.

However, this gap is narrowing as men are smoking and drinking less than previous generations.

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The decline of heavy industry jobs and improvements in heart disease treatment has also produced significant improvements in male mortality.

Women are still expected to live 2.5 years longer than men in Horsham - but the gap is narrowing, down from 4 years in 2001-2003.

“This analysis supports the view that mortality improvements in the UK have slowed somewhat in the second decade of the 21st century”, said Chris White, Principal Research Officer at the ONS.

Researchers look at the ages people die and the projected death rates in each area to calculate the general life expectancy.

Source data: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpect

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