People in the most deprived communities are spending more than one-third of their lives in poor health, according to new figures released by National Records of Scotland.

In 2019-2021 Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) at birth for females was 61.1 years and for males was 60.4 years.

It has fallen for both in recent years.

HLE for females was almost 25 years lower for the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived.

The difference was even greater for males at 26 years.

Maria, Kaye-Bardgett, NRS statistician said: “It’s important to recognise the difference between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy but also how they impact on each other.

“These figures show that people living in the most deprived communities are more likely to report their health poor – so they have a shorter healthy life expectancy.

“We already know from life expectancy figures that people in the most deprived communities die at younger ages.

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