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This chart displays the average life expectancies of the good folk that make up our British Isles. A quick look at the graph show’s that people in England, and specifically London, are living longer than our closest neighbours. The question to ask now then would be, why?!
It isn’t to do with our NHS spending more money. Scotland’s own independent NHS spends much more than we do, but this is down to the number and range of small locations up in the Highlands.
The next place to look would be lifestyle. A lot of Scotland’s mortality rates look to be down to specific health issues. For example, the average Scot drinks on average more units of alcohol per day than the average Englishman. (That was a very average sentence!) Scotland also produces more smokers and less of the people are getting their 5 a day!
Wealth can also play a part. A look at London’s boroughs (the link to the full set of data can be found at the bottom of the page) proves this.
See also:-
UK life expectancy figures show the difference money makes by SA Mathieson - http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/20/uk-life-expectancy-estimates
Full set of data of life expectancies for all regions - https://spreadsheets2.google.com/ccc?key=t2lN0i-WRspvFSVLq40aHeQ&hl=en#gid=0
Scottish health survey from August 2010 - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2010/08/30141002
Government statistics of life expencancy in years 2007-2009 - http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/SearchRes.asp?term=life+expectancy
Government statistics showing a comparison of life expectancies in different decades - http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1850
