Life Expectancy - The Herefordshire Partnership

Life Expectancy

Life expectancy is the probable number of years a person will live after a given age, as determined by the mortality rate in a specific geographic area.  The 2005-07 life expectancy at birth for males is 78.1 years and 83.0 years for females.

In line with trends regionally and nationally, life expectancy for Herefordshire’s population has increased since 1991-93.  On average, Herefordshire’s females are expected to live 2.9 years longer in 2004-06 than in 1991-93.  Life expectancy for males also increased by an average of 3.2 years over the same period.  However, females are expected to live longer than males as is the case regionally and nationally. 

Confidence Intervals (CI) are shown in brackets under the life expectancy figures and as bars in charts 4.5 and 4.6.  Confidence intervals are provided to show whether there is actually a statistically significant difference between figures for different dates and different areas.  (For more information about confidence intervals see reference section 50).

Table 1. Life expectancy at birth (years)

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Crown Copyright

Chart 1 and 2 show the changes over time of life expectancy for Herefordshire compared to the West Midlands region and England for males and females. 

Over the monitoring period, male life expectancy in Herefordshire was higher than that for the West Midlands region, although the gap has narrowed in recent years.  Compared to England as a whole, life expectancy for males was higher, although the gap has narrowed with similar levels in 2004-06 and 2005-07.

Chart 2. Life expectancy for males

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Crown Copyright

Female life expectancy in Herefordshire remains higher than that for the West Midlands region and across England as a whole, with quite a wide gap still.

Chart 3. Life expectancy for females

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Crown Copyright

The difference between male and female life expectancy at birth, has remained fairly similar over the monitoring period.  Life expectancy for males has typically been around 6% lower than that for females (a ratio of 0.94 male:female), which is similar to ratios for the West Midlands region (also 0.94) and to England (0.95).