Life Expectancy
Life Expectancy is an estimate of the number of years a new-born child would live if it were to experience the current mortality rate for all its life. It is a measure of the overall health of a population and how well society is doing.
Scotland has one of the lowest life expectancies in Western Europe and it is getting worse for the least well off. Nationally, life expectancy is used to assess and set several important policies that impact on everyday life such as the process for setting the State Pension Age.
The life expectancy at birth in Midlothian is slightly above the Scottish average (2019/21) for both males and females.
Women’s overall life expectancy is higher than men’s in Midlothian. However, there are stark differences in health because of poverty and social disadvantage. Life expectancy varies by up to 10 years across different parts of Midlothian (National Records Scotland,2023).
Life expectancy in Midlothian and Scotland by age and sex 2001-2003 to 2019-2021
Data source: National Records of Scotland
Healthy Life expectancy
Healthy life expectancy is the average number of years that a new-born can expect to live in “full health.” Life expectancy is an important indicator to gauge the overall health of a community's health and can be used locally to assess inequality between different population groups.
Locally the gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy has increased by 0.9 years for both men and women since the last Joint Needs Assessment data was collated in 2019. This mirrors the national trend (National Records for Scotland, 2023).
Although there is a large gap between male and female life expectancy in both Midlothian and Scotland the same is not true for healthy life expectancy, where there is less difference between genders.
Female and male life and healthy life expectancy at birth in years for 2019-2021
Data source: National Records of Scotland
Page updated: May 2024