North-South life expectancy gap is getting WORSE with northerners faring particularly early deaths

Published: 00:44, 27 July 2026 | Updated: 00:44, 27 July 2026 There may now be a No10 in Manchester to rival its Downing Street counterpart and the first Prime Minister born in the North for half a century. But it seems Andy Burnham must do plenty more if he is to rebalance the country, with analysis showing the North-South divide for life expectancy has widened during the past decade. Despite life longevity reaching the highest levels ever recorded in England last year - with men and women on average living for 80 and nearly 84 years, respectively - the gains are not represented equally. There appears to be a clear geographical divide between both halves of the country, with a difference of three years between London and the North East. Starker distinctions arose at local level, with life expectancy in Blackpool being ten years shorter for men and eight years for women than in Hart, Hampshire. Health think-tank the King's Fund, which wrote the report, said such findings reflect the greater levels of deprivation seen in the North. It also suggested the Government's aim to increase healthy life expectancy for everyone in England looks 'unrealistic'. Achieving such targets would require improvements in population health on a scale not seen in recent decades, the charity added. The North - comprising the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the Midlands - has suffered consistently from having the lowest life expectancy nationally. There has been little or no improvement in the ten years before 2023-25. Andy Burnham must do plenty more if he is to rebalance the country, with analysis showing the North-South divide for life expectancy has widened during the past decade. He is pictured here in his new No10 North office This has contributed to UK life expectancy now being the lowest of all comparable high-income countries, apart from Germany and the US. The study showed northerners fare particularly badly from causes of early death, such as heart disease, cancer, suicide and substance misuse. Meanwhile, life expectancy in London, the South East, the South West and East of England has increased by nearly a year. There were also stark figures when it came to how many years are spent in good health. It has fallen everywhere by 2.5 years in the decade from 2012-14 to 2022-24. In that period, men's healthy life expectancy fell from 63.2 years to 60.9 years, while women's fell from 63.9 years to 61.3 years. And figures show that in 2022-24, men living in the least deprived 10 per cent of areas in England could expect to live a decade longer than men in the most deprived areas. For women, the difference was eight years. But the gap in healthy life expectancy was even greater - at two decades. Veena Raleigh, of the King's Fund, said: 'That people in our northern and deprived communities have seen little or no improvement in longevity over a decade... is a mark of shame for an affluent country.'