Has Scotland turned a corner on life expectancy?

Paul Johnston, PHS Chief Executive, reflects on the recent trends in Scotland's life expectancy data, and the work taking place through the Collaboration for Health Equity in Scotland (CHES) to increase life expectancy and reduce health inequalities.

Scotland’s stalled life expectancy isn’t inevitable. The most recent statistics show female life expectancy has increased by almost 14 weeks to 81.06 years, and male life expectancy by almost 18 weeks to 77.12 years since 2021-2023.

Last year, Public Health Scotland (PHS) launched a new partnership with Professor Sir Michael Marmot and his colleagues at University College London - the Collaboration for Health Equity in Scotland (CHES), which focusses on increasing life expectancy and reducing health inequalities.

Sir Michael is one of the world’s leading experts on improving life expectancy. His research has shown that it’s the conditions in which we are born, live and work that have the greatest impact on life expectancy - and that action at national and local level can bring enormous change.

CHES one year on

Over the past year, we’ve been working in North Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and Aberdeen City, supporting local government, NHS and other partners to ensure their actions will make the greatest difference in life expectancy. This requires working beyond the boundaries of individual organisations. It includes business, charities and individuals. Careful planning has been done, and a range of actions are in the pipeline to improve support for families, widen access to childcare, tackle poverty, help people get into work, and enable people to live a healthier life.

It’s been great to see growing passion for change. This is work that requires both head and heart, and a refusal to accept that the status quo is good enough.

It needs courage and determination. I’ve seen plenty of this in the areas we’re supporting as work has progressed with partners and communities. That gives me confidence that change is possible. 

We’re also working nationally. There’s clear evidence that good work contributes significantly to life expectancy it’s adequately paid and with a supportive work culture. We’ve brought a range of employers together to share practice on how we can help more people into work and address a growing issue with people not being in work due to ill health.

We’re connecting with all political parties in the Scottish Parliament to set out the range of actions that will ensure that life expectancy increases and people can thrive. These are captured well in Scotland’s new Population Health Framework. An unwavering commitment to delivering the actions it sets out will bring change.

So, is Scotland turning the corner on life expectancy?

My answer is ‘it depends’.

It depends on action at a national level that refuses to allow short term pressures and demand to crowd out the long-term transformation that’s needed. Action that focusses on ensuring that children have the best start in life, poverty is reduced, access to good work is the norm, and ill health is prevented wherever possible. The next five years of the Scottish Parliament is an opportunity to secure change. It will require politicians to work together with a determined focus on action that will bring long term change.

It also depends on action at a local level that enables us all to live a healthier life. We’re working to spread learning from the three local areas across Scotland via the CHES Learning System and by sharing our reports. We want to see a growing movement for change across all of Scotland.

With each year that life expectancy increases, so too does our confidence that we’re turning the corner on years of no improvement, made worse by the pandemic, and the people of Scotland are living longer lives.

Later this month, we’ll publish a new 10-year strategy for Public Health Scotland. At the heart of it is a commitment that we’ll bring our collective knowledge and experience to the table with all those who’ll work with us.  We’ll do this in a determined effort to ensure that life expectancy continues to improve each year, and that we can have more years in good health. Working together, we can see continued progress. 

Further Information

Read more about the Collaboration for Health Equity Scotland 

Find out more about Scotland’s Population Health Framework and PHS’s role in its development and delivery

Read our blog about a recent CHES webinar, which focused on how the effective gathering and use of local data can help us build a fairer, healthier Scotland.