Life Expectancy for Administrative Areas within Scotland, 2005-2007

The key points in this report for 2005-2007 are:

At Birth:

Life expectancy at birth for Scotland was 74.8 years for men and 79.7 years for women. This varied considerably amongst areas in Scotland;
The council area with the highest male life expectancy was East Dunbartonshire (78.0 years), 7.2 years more than Glasgow City, the lowest at 70.8 years;
The council area with the highest female life expectancy was Shetland (82.6 years), 5.5 years more than Glasgow City (lowest at 77.1 years);
The NHS board area with the lowest life expectancy figure for both men and women was Greater Glasgow & Clyde (72.7 and 78.5 years respectively);
The NHS board area with the highest male life expectancy was Borders (76.6 years) and the highest female life expectancy was Shetland (82.6 years).

At age 65:

Life expectancy at age 65 for Scotland was 16.1 years for men and 18.8 years for women;
The council area with the highest life expectancy at age 65 for both men and woman was Shetland (18.4 years and 21.0 years respectively), 4.6 years for men and 3.6 years for women more than Glasgow City, which had the lowest life expectancy;
Greater Glasgow & Clyde was the NHS board with the lowest life expectancy at age 65 for both men and women (14.9 years and 18.0 years respectively);
Shetland was the NHS board with the highest life expectancy at age 65 for both men and women (18.4 years and 21.0 years respectively).

Compared with 10 years ago in 1995-1997:

Life expectancy at birth for Scotland has improved from 72.3 years to 74.8 years for men and 77.9 years to 79.7 years for women;
The gap between men and women continues to close, dropping from 5.6 years to 4.9 years over the period;
Although some areas had only very small increases in life expectancy over the 10 year period, there were no areas (council or NHS board area) that experienced a decrease;
The gap between highest and lowest life expectancy in council areas for men decreased by 0.3 years – from 7.5 years in 1995-1997 to 7.2 years in 2005-2007. Whereas, for women, the gap increased by 0.7 years – from 4.8 years to 5.5 years. A similar pattern was found for NHS board areas;
Amongst Council areas, the biggest rise in life expectancy for men was in Shetland (4.0 years) and for women was in East Dunbartonshire (3.4 years);
The smallest rise in life expectancy for men was in Clackmannanshire (1.4 years) and East Ayrshire (0.5 years) for women;
Amongst NHS board areas, the biggest rise in life expectancy for men was in Shetland (4.0 years) and the smallest was in Orkney (1.4 years);
For women the biggest rise in life expectancy amongst NHS board areas was in Shetland (2.5 years) and the smallest was in Dumfries & Galloway (1.2 years).