Glasgow City life expectancy has dropped and is worst in Scotland

Data from National Records of Scotland reveals average life expectancies in local authorities across the country.

Glasgow City has the lowest life expectancy for both men and women.

Remarkably the life expectancy for both the male and female sex has dropped when compared to data compiled between 2012 and 2014.

Men living in the Glasgow City local authority have the shortest life expectancy in the whole of Scotland, at just 73.1 years, down from 73.3 years in 2014.

Women on the other hand have a life expectancy of 78.3 years if they live in Glasgow City, down by 1% when compared to 2012-2014.

The findings come after it was revealed in September that life expectancy in the UK has fallen for men for the first time in 40 years.

The average age was 79 years for men  in the three years to 2020 according to Office for National Statistics (ONS), retreating to a level last seen in 2012-14.

Looking at 2020 in isolation life expectancy for men had dipped by 1.2 years and for women by 0.9. Experts have attributed the fall to the Covid-19 pandemic with Oxford University saying that the drop in life expectancy was on a scale not seen since World War Two.

According to NRS “drug-related deaths also had a negative impact on life expectancy for males.”

Highest life expectancies in Shetland and East Renfrewshire

Glasgow City’s life expectancy lagged someway behind other parts of Scotland.

In Scotland between 2018-2020, life expectancy at birth was 76.8 years for males and 81.0 years for females.

In East Renfrewshire, female life expectancy at birth was 84.0 years, the highest in Scotland, and over 5 years more than Glasgow City.

The highest male life expectancy at birth in Scotland between 2018 and 2020 was recorded in Shetland at 80.6 years, a difference of over seven years when compared to Glasgow City.

Life expectancy at birth increased in the country’s capital when compared to 2012 to 2014 with Edinburgh men and women holding life expectancies of 78.2 and 82.4 respectively.