Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what the average life expectancy in England (1) is currently, and (2) was in 2010.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

Dear Lord Rooker,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what the average life expectancy in England (1) is currently, and (2) was in 2010 (HL6324).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the ‘National life tables; England’ dataset[1] on 25 September 2019. The latest available figures show that period life expectancy at birth for the years 2016 to 2018 was 83.18 years for females and 79.56 years for males. The corresponding figures for the years 2008 to 2010 are 82.33 for females and 78.31 for males.

Period life expectancy assumes mortality rates remain constant into the future. For further information, please see ‘Period and Cohort Life Expectancy Explained’[2].

The bulletin published with the national life tables contains further information about these tables[3].

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/datasets/nationallifetablesenglandreferencetables

[2]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/methodologies/periodandcohortlifeexpectancyexplained

[3]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/bulletins/nationallifetablesunitedkingdom/2016to2018