New ONS figures put median healthy life expectancy at birth at 65.3 years for males and 66.8 years for females across English small areas, compared with 62.5 years and 63.8 years respectively in Wales.
According to small-area ONS data, men in Wales may expect to spend up to 2.8 fewer years in good health than women in England. This figure is derived from median MSOA-level estimates and differs from ONS national healthy life expectancy statistics, which show a smaller gap between the two groups. The Office for National Statistics published health state life expectancy estimates for Middle layer Super Output Areas — small statistical zones of around 7,000 to 8,000 residents — covering the period 2019 to 2023. Across England, median healthy life expectancy at birth was 65.3 years for males and 66.8 years for females. In Wales, those figures drop to 62.5 years for males and 63.8 years for females.
The gap between England and Wales is 2.8 years for males and 3.0 years for females. Healthy life expectancy measures the expected number of years lived in good health — not total years alive — combining mortality data with self-reported health and activity-limitation information from the Census and population surveys. The 2019–2023 period spans the COVID-19 pandemic, and ONS data on overall life expectancy shows it had not returned to pre-pandemic levels by 2021–2023 in any constituent country or English region.
For Kent households, the release matters because it includes area-level estimates for every MSOA across the county — covering coastal towns, rural communities and urban neighbourhoods alike. Previous ONS work has shown that healthy life expectancy is lower in more deprived areas, and Kent contains MSOAs that span a mix of deprivation levels. The figures will allow Kent County Council, Medway Council and NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board to identify which communities have the shortest healthy lives and target services accordingly — from smoking cessation programmes to primary care planning.
The scale of potential variation within a single county is striking. Research on English MSOAs found a gap in life expectancy at birth for women of about 20.6 years between the highest- and lowest-performing small areas in 2019. That’s not a north–south divide — it can be the difference between two neighbouring postcodes.
Specific numerical values for individual Kent MSOAs are not cited in the ONS announcement and require direct consultation of the published tables. ONS does not routinely produce health state life expectancy for geographies smaller than local authorities; MSOA-level estimates are produced only for selected multi-year periods, typically anchored around a census year.
Source: @ONS