4.1 National Life Expectancy at Birth
4.1.1 The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces national life tables for the UK and constituent countries, which give statistics on period expectation of life. Responsibility for the production of national life expectancy figures transferred to ONS from the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) on 31 January 2006.
4.1.2 Every ten years a set of graduated (smoothed) life tables for Scotland is published. In addition, each year un-graduated interim life tables are produced for Scotland, based on data for a period of three consecutive calendar years. The latter is available for 1980-1982 to 2003-2005 from the National Statistics website:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=14459&Pos=&ColRank=1&Rank=422
4.1.3 Because of the differences between complete (single year of age) and abridged (grouped years) life tables, the Scotland level figures presented in this report may differ slightly from those published by ONS. A detailed description of the standard methods and notation associated with the calculation of life expectancy by ONS can be found within the Interim Life Table files on the National Statistics website.
4.1.4 Period life expectancies are worked out using the age-specific mortality rates for a given period (either a single year, or a run of years), with no allowance for any later actual or projected changes in mortality. Cohort life expectancies are worked out using age-specific mortality rates which allow for known or projected changes in mortality in later years. Period and cohort life expectancies for selected ages, based on single calendar year data, are available from the GAD website:
http://www.gad.gov.uk/Demography Data/Life Tables/Period_and_cohort_eol.html
4.1.5 ONS intends to publish Scotland level ungraduated interim life tables for 2004-2006 in November 2007. Provisional figures for 2004-2006 are available in the vital events reference tables which go with "Scotland's Population 2006 - The Registrar General's Annual Review of Demographic Trends". These provisional results can be found on the GROS website:
4.2 Life Expectancy for Scottish Administrative Areas
4.2.1 Previous publications dedicated to life expectancy produced by GROS are available from our website:
http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/life-expectancy
4.2.2 Life expectancy information for council and NHS board areas within Scotland from 1991-1993 to 2001-2003 is available on the National Statistics website, published on 15 October 2004, through the following link:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=8841&Pos=&ColRank=1&Rank=272
This webpage also contains life expectancy results for local and health authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
4.2.3 A report which details the research undertaken by ONS to compare methodologies for calculating of life expectancy figures and confidence intervals can also be found on the National Statistics website:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_other/GSSMethodology_No_33.pdf
4.3.1 Information on healthy life expectancy (HLE) was published in March 2004 by the Information and Statistics Division (ISD) of the NHS in Scotland. HLE is defined as the number of years people can expect to live in good health. The difference between healthy life expectancy and life expectancy indicates the length of time people can expect to spend in poor health. More information on this work is available on the Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) website at:
4.4 Other data available from the General Register Office for Scotland
4.4.1 Estimates on the resident population of Scotland are prepared by GROS each year. These are available by sex and single year of age for council and NHS board areas, together with historical data. Information is also available on a wide range of related topics such as small area population estimates, population projections, migration estimates and data from the 2001 and earlier Censuses. For further information please contact:
Statistics Customer Services
Telephone: 0131 314 4299
Fax: 0131 314 4696
Email: [email protected]