Scotland: Record fall in life expectancy blamed in part on Covid crisis

Life expectancy in Scotland has suffered the largest decrease since records began, with the Covid-19 pandemic blamed for the “vast majority” of the fall.

New data from National Records of Scotland (NRS) shows life expectancy for the period 2018 to 2020 was down by more than 18 weeks for males – with Scotland’s drugs problem also said to be a factor.

The fall was smaller for females – a reduction of 8.5 weeks.

Life expectancy for males in 2018-2020 was 76.8 years, down from 77.1 years in 2017-2019.

As well as the impact of Covid-19 and drugs, NRS found deaths from “external causes”, such as accidents and suicides, “also had a negative effect on life expectancy”.

For females, life expectancy in 2018-2020 was 81.0 years, compared to 81.1 years in 2017-2019.

While coronavirus had a negative effect, this was countered in part by improvements in mortality for a number of conditions, including respiratory diseases, cancer, dementia and Alzheimer’s.

However average life expectancy at birth in Scotland has “now dropped below the 2012-2014 figure”, the report said, after “the biggest annual decrease since the series began”.

Scotland has the lowest life expectancy in the UK for males and females, with the figures showing this gap is increasing.

The report shows average life expectancy at birth in the UK was 82.9 years for females and 79.0 years for males in 2018-2020 – both higher than the Scottish figures.

The report said: “This gap between Scotland and the whole of the UK has increased since 1980-1982.”

The gap in life expectancy between Scots in the most and least deprived areas has also grown.

The NRS figures show baby girls born in the least deprived areas have an average life expectancy of 85.6 years, compared to 75.4 for their counterparts born in the poorest areas – a gap of 10.2 years.

For baby boys the gap is wider, with males born in the most affluent areas having an average life expectancy of 82.4 years – 13.5 years more than a life expectancy of 68.9 years for those born in the most deprived parts of the country.

NRS said “This gap has become wider over the past few years, growing by 1.3 years for males and 1.6 years for females since 2013-2015.”

Life expectancy also varied between Scotland’s council areas, with female life expectancy at birth highest in East Renfrewshire at 84 years and lowest in Glasgow at 78.3 years.

Glasgow also had the lowest life expectancy at birth for males, 73.1 years, while the Shetland Islands had the highest at 80.6 years.