Scottish Cities

Male life expectancy at birth, selected Scottish cities
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Despite overall rises in life expectancy in the last 150 years across Scotland, male life expectancy in Glasgow remains considerably lower than in other Scottish cities. Improvements in life expectancy stalled from 2012 onwards and this is likely to be as a consequence of UK austerity policies. In the period shown, 2019-2021, increased mortality due to the Covid-19 pandemic (which began in early 2020) has led to a further sharp reduction in life expectancy. In 2019-21, a boy born in Glasgow was estimated to be likely to live for 72.9 years, which is 5.1 years less than in Edinburgh and 3.6 years less than in Scotland as a whole.

Female life expectancy at birth, selected Scottish cities
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Female life expectancy also increased overall across Scotland over the last century and a half, but female life expectancy in Glasgow remains lower than in other Scottish cities. Improvements in life expectancy started to stall from 2012 and this has been followed by actual reductions. In the period shown, 2019-2021, increased mortality due to the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a further reduction in life expectancy. In 2019-21, a girl born in Glasgow was estimated to be likely to live for 78.0 years, 4.4 years less than in Edinburgh and 2.8 years less than in Scotland as a whole.

Notes

The data underlying these graphs come from National Records of Scotland.

In August 2021 the GCPH published Health in a changing city: Glasgow 2021, a report that examined demographic, socio-economic, environmental and health trends in Glasgow over the last two decades and trends in life expectancy by neighbourhood and by deprivation were included.

Research on the impact of austerity on mortality and life expectancy can be accessed on the GCPH website. The most recent paper on the likely impact of UK austerity policies was published in October 2022: ‘Bearing the burden of austerity: how do changing mortality rates in the UK compare between men and women?

This page was last updated in October 2022.