The average Briton is now spending more than two fewer years free from illness or disability than a decade ago, according to new analysis that lays bare a dramatic deterioration in the nation’s health.
The UK has tumbled from 14th to 20th place among 21 wealthy nations for healthy life expectancy, leaving only the United States behind, the Health Foundation found. While comparable countries such as Japan, Norway and Spain have posted modest improvements averaging 0.4 years, Britain is one of just five countries where the measure has declined – a sign that the problem is home-grown rather than a shared global trend.
International rankings and the scale of the decline
Office for National Statistics data show that men’s healthy life expectancy fell from 62.9 years in 2012-14 to 60.7 years in 2022-24. For women, the drop was from 63.7 to 60.9 years. The proportion of life spent in good health has shrunk accordingly – for men from 79 per cent to 77 per cent, and for women from 77 per cent to 73 per cent. Overall, healthy life expectancy has dipped to its lowest level since records began 15 years ago.
Nor is overall life expectancy to blame: that figure has remained stable over the same period, and the Health Foundation stresses that Covid-19 is not the principal cause, though the pandemic has left residual effects in the latest reporting period. The core issue is that Britons are falling ill earlier, not dying sooner.
In more than 90 per cent of the country, residents now begin experiencing illness before reaching the state pension age of 66 – a threshold that is itself set to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028, and to 68 later.
The drivers of ill health
The think-tank identifies obesity as a primary culprit. The UK is now Western Europe’s most overweight nation, a status that has fuelled rising rates of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. Deaths linked to alcohol, drugs and suicide have also contributed substantially to the loss of illness-free years, alongside deteriorating self-reported health and widening disparities between the most affluent and most disadvantaged communities.
Mental ill health has reached unprecedented levels, with more people than ever living with long-term conditions. Around one in four adults in England experiences a mental health problem each year, with women more likely to be affected than men and young women aged 16-24 at the highest risk. In 2023, 6,069 suicides were registered in England and Wales – the highest rate since 1999. Yet fewer than half of those with mental health problems receive treatment, pointing to chronic underinvestment in services. The cost of poor mental health to the economy has been estimated at £300 billion a year in England alone; the UK public sector lost 18.5 million working days to mental health-related issues in 2022.
“These findings reveal a stark truth: the UK’s health is going backwards,” said Dr Jennifer Dixon, chief executive of the Health Foundation. “The lights on the dashboard are flashing red.”
The health gap between rich and poor areas is widening sharply. In England, the difference in healthy life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas has grown by 22 per cent for men and 17.1 per cent for women between 2011-13 and 2021-23. Premature mortality is highest in the North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber, and lowest in London. At a local level, men in prosperous Richmond upon Thames can expect 69.3 years of good health and women 70.3 years. In Blackpool, the figure for men is just 50.9 years; in Hartlepool, women fare little better at 51.2 years.
The Department of Health and Social Care described the nation’s declining health as “a disgrace” and pointed to recent legislation – the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which received royal assent this week, and restrictions on junk food advertising before 9pm that came into force in January 2026. The bill will create a “smoke-free generation” by banning tobacco sales to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009, and gives the government powers to regulate vaping products. The advertising ban covers high-fat, salt and sugar products on television before 9pm and online.
A spokesman said: “We know there is much more to do, but by building an NHS fit for the future, we will help people live well for longer, whatever their background.” The government has also committed to halving the healthy life expectancy gap and improving the national figure by five years by 2035.
Dr Dixon urged ministers to go further, calling for compulsory reformulation of food products and the introduction of minimum unit pricing for alcohol in England – a policy that has been linked to a 13.4 per cent reduction in alcohol-specific deaths in Scotland. The economic stakes are high: a record 2.8 million people are too sick to work, draining tax revenue and slowing growth.