GROS Life Expectancy in Special Areas (Urban/Rural, Deprivation and Community Health Partnership) within Scotland, 2004-2006

1. Introduction

This publication summarises the Registrar General for Scotland’s life expectancy figures for the following "special areas" within Scotland:

Urban and rural areas, in line with the Scottish Government’s 2005-2006 Urban Rural Classification, which splits Scotland into large urban areas, other urban areas, accessible small towns, remote small towns, accessible rural areas and remote rural areas — see Scottish Executive Urban Rural Classification 2005-2006.

Deprivation areas, which are derived from the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2006 developed by the Scottish Government. The SIMD ranks the 6,505 Scottish data zones (areas of compact shape and similar social characteristics, with populations of between 500 and 1,000 people) from 1 (most deprived) to 6,505 (least deprived). The SIMD rank can be split into twenty vigintiles, ten deciles or five quintiles, for example, vigintile 1 contains the 5% most deprived areas of Scotland and vigintile 20 contains the 5% least deprived areas; quintile 1 contains the 20% most deprived areas and quintile 5 contains the 20% least deprived; and so on. Life expectancy figures in deprivation areas have been presented in this way.
Community Health Partnerships (CHPs), which are organisations responsible for managing community health services in Scotland. CHPs develop existing links between community and hospital-based health services and local authority services such as social work, housing, leisure and education. Their principal aim is to improve the long-term health and wellbeing of communities and enhance the quality of health and social care services. In some areas, such as Glasgow, the Partnerships are responsible for many local social care services and are therefore called Community Health and Care Partnerships (CHCPs) and are run jointly by the NHS with local Council partners.

Life expectancy statistics for the whole of Scotland, and for each Council and NHS Board area, were given in Life Expectancy for Administrative Areas within Scotland, 2004-2006 published by GROS on 4 September 2007. Section 4 of that publication explains the terms used in this publication.

The figures quoted in this publication are all period life expectancies. Period life expectancies are calculated using age specific mortality rates for a given period, with no allowance for any actual or projected future changes in mortality. For more information on "Life Expectancy at Birth" see Section 2 of Life Expectancy for Administrative Areas within Scotland, 2004-2006 publication.

This publication gives expectation of life at an "exact age". This is the average number of years that those at this age are expected to live thereafter. These extracts from period life tables are constructed from the estimated population in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and the total number of deaths registered in these years. The column headed I_x shows the numbers who would survive to the exact age of x, out of 100,000 persons who, from birth, were subject to the mortality probabilities indicated by the death records for 2004-2006. The column headed e_x^o shows the expectation of life — that is, the average number of years of life left to persons aged exactly x who are subject to the 2004-2006 mortality probabilities from age x onwards. For example, 76.5% of the male population and 86.0% of the female population of Large Urban areas can expect to survive to age 65, and a male aged 65 living in a Large Urban area could expect to live on average another 15.3 years, and a female aged 65 could expect to live on average another 18.4 years.

These life expectancy figures may be of particular use in monitoring and investigating health inequality issues across Scotland and in setting public health targets, particularly when used in conjunction with the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2006.

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