People in the UK are spending more years in bad health than a decade ago, with healthy life expectancy having now fallen below state pension age in most areas.
The sharp decline – which suggests the population’s health is ‘going backwards’ – in healthy years is in stark contrast to its improvement in most other rich countries.
In terms of how many years someone spends free of illness or disability, the UK now ranks 20th out of the 21 countries analysed by the Health Foundation think tank.
Meanwhile, in Japan, Norway and Sweden, healthy life expectancy continues to steadily improve.
In the UK, healthy
To provide well-rounded coverage and a breadth of insight across various events, we rely on contributions from several staff writers, each bringing their own area of expertise to our publication.
