1.1 This paper summarises the Registrar General for Scotland’s life expectancy figures for the years 2008-2010. It combines the previously separate ‘Life Expectancy for Administrative Areas within Scotland’ and Life Expectancy in Special Areas within Scotland’ publications. This was proposed during the consultation on the National Records of Scotland (NRS) formerly General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) Demography Statistical Work Programme carried out earlier in 2011. Table 6, Table 7, Table 8 and Table 9 are new and compare results with those from five years and ten years ago. Figure 8, Figure 9, Figure 10 and Figure 11 are also new.
1.2 This paper reports on the 32 Council areas in Scotland, the 14 NHS Board areas in existence since 1 April 2006 (figures for NHS Board areas prior to this date are available on request) and the 36 Community Health Partnership (CHP) organisations. Analysis of urban and rural areas, as defined by the Scottish Government’s 6-fold Urban Rural Classification version 2009-2010, and deprivation areas as defined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2009 is also included, along with comparisons between the estimates for 2008-2010 and those of previous three-year periods. Further information on the geographical areas used in this publication can be found in Section 8.
1.3 The estimates for 2008-2010, given in Table 6, Table 7, Table 8, Table 9, Table 10 and Table 11 have been ranked for ease of presentation. For Council areas, this means that ‘1’ is the area with the highest life expectancy and ‘32’ the lowest. Similarly, NHS Board areas are ranked 1 to 14 and Community Health Partnerships are ranked 1 to 36.
1.4 Life expectancy at birth provides a useful summary measure of mortality rates actually experienced over a given period. It also provides an objective means of comparing trends in mortality, over time, between areas of a country and with other countries. This is of use in monitoring and investigating health inequality issues across Scotland and in setting public health targets, particularly when used in conjunction with the SIMD. The Scottish Government currently has a high level target to match European population growth over a 10 year period, supported by increased healthy life expectancy. It also aims to increase healthy life expectancy at birth in the most deprived areas and to reduce mortality from Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) among the under-75s in deprived areas. Healthy life expectancy is derived by combining estimates of life expectancy with survey data on self-assessed health (Section 7.3).
1.5 The figures in this publication may be revised if there is a large impact on the figures caused by revising population estimates following the 2011 Census.