The composition of the NHS Board areas in terms of council areas is summarised in the table below. From 1 April 2014 the boundaries of NHS Board areas were aligned with Council areas. The tables presented in this publication show information for the new NHS Board areas.
| NHS Board area | Council area |
|---|---|
| Life expectancy estimates for the old NHS Board areas are also available on the National Records of Scotland (NRS) website. From 2011-2013 only estimates for the new boundaries are published. | |
| Ayrshire & Arran | East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire |
| Borders | Scottish Borders |
| Dumfries & Galloway | Dumfries & Galloway |
| Fife | Fife |
| Forth Valley | Clackmannanshire, Falkirk, Stirling |
| Grampian | Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Moray |
| Greater Glasgow & Clyde | East Dubartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire |
| Highland | Argyll & Bute, Highland |
| Lanarkshire | North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire |
| Lothian | East Lothian, City of Edinburgh, Midlothian, West Lothian |
| Orkney | Orkney Islands |
| Shetland | Shetland Islands |
| Tayside | Angus, Dundee City, Perth & Kinross |
| Western Isles | Eilean Siar |
There are 34 Community Health Partnership (CHP) organisations in Scotland. CHPs are responsible for managing community health services and have developed 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 the Partnerships are responsible for many local social care services and are therefore called Community Health and Care Partnerships (CHCPs) or Community Health and Social Care Partnerships (CHSCPs) and are run jointly by the NHS with local Council partners. For ease of reading they are referred to as CHPs throughout the publication.
The urban-rural split used in this publication is the Scottish Government’s 6-fold Urban Rural Classification version 2011-2012. The differences with the previous classifications stem from changes to either settlement populations or settlement boundaries. The definitions of urban and rural areas underlying the classification are unchanged. For more information can be found in 2011-2012 Urban Rural Classification publication held on the Scottish Government website.
The 6-fold classification distinguishes between urban, rural and remote areas within Scotland. It is consistent with the Government's definition of rurality and includes the following categories:
| 1) Large Urban | Settlements of over 125,000 people. |
| 2) Other Urban | Settlements of 10,000 to 125,000 people. |
| 3) Accessible Small Towns | Settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people and within 30 minute drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more. |
| 4) Remote Small Towns | Settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people and with a drive time of over 30 minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more. |
| 5) Accessible Rural | Settlements of less than 3,000 people and within 30 minute drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more. |
| 6) Remote Rural | Settlements of less than 3,000 people and with a drive time of over 30 minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more. |
Deprivation areas are based on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2012 developed by the Scottish Government. Further information can be found on the Scottish Government website. The SIMD ranks the 6,505 Scottish data zones (areas of compact shape and similar social characteristics with populations of around 795 people) from 1 (most deprived) to 6,505 (least deprived). Life expectancy figures for deprivation areas have been presented for deciles only in this publication, although the SIMD rank can also be split into vigintiles and quintiles. Deciles are groups which contain one tenth (approximately 651) of Scotland's 6505 data zones, where decile 1 contains the 10 per cent most deprived data zones and decile 10 contains the 10 per cent least deprived. The SIMD measures deprivation and not affluence and life expectancy figures presented by deprivation area in this publication should not be translated as 'life expectancy of the rich versus that of the poor' but instead should be viewed in terms of 'differences in life expectancy in relation to the amount of concentrated deprivation'. It should also be noted that not all people living in deprived areas are deprived and not all deprived people live in deprived areas.
The National Records of Scotland (NRS) website has a guide that describes the methodology used to produce the life expectancy statistics for Scotland. This methodology is similar to that used to produce life expectancy estimates in other UK constituent countries.