People in East Renfrewshire are living longer in good health than the national average, according to new figures from National Records of Scotland.
The latest data, covering 2022 to 2024, shows East Renfrewshire is one of the areas where healthy life expectancy is higher than average for both females and males.
Healthy life expectancy is the number of years a person can expect to spend in good health.
In East Renfrewshire, females can expect to spend 68.7 years in good health. The 95% confidence interval – which shows the range within which the true figure is likely to sit – is 64.3 to 73 years.
For males in East Renfrewshire, healthy life expectancy is also above the Scottish average. Nationally, healthy life expectancy is 59.4 years for females and 59.1 years for males.
Across Scotland, healthy life expectancy has been falling since the mid-2010s for both sexes. Females have lost almost four years of healthy life expectancy since 2014-2016. Males have lost almost three years over the same period.
Life expectancy itself has not fallen as sharply and has seen a small increase in recent years. However, healthy life expectancy has not recovered in the same way. This means people are likely to be spending a greater proportion of their lives in poor health.
The figures are based on a national survey. People are asked to rate their health as very good, good, fair, bad or very bad. Those who say their health is very good or good are counted as being in good health.
There remains a wide gap between the most and least deprived communities.
Females living in the 10% most deprived communities spend around 60% of their lives in good health. Males in those areas spend around two thirds of their lives in good health and have a life expectancy of 69.8 years.
In contrast, females and males in the 10% least deprived communities can expect to spend over 80% of their lives in good health.
Head of vital events statistics at National Records of Scotland, Phillipa Haxton, said: “While life expectancy increased to around pre-pandemic levels for both females and males, healthy life expectancy has not increased. This means people are likely to be spending a greater proportion of their life in poor health than in previous years. The gap between the most and least deprived communities is even more stark for this measure than it is for life expectancy.”
Other areas where healthy life expectancy was higher than average included Orkney Islands, Perth and Kinross, Aberdeenshire, East Dunbartonshire and the City of Edinburgh.
North Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire were among the areas with lower than average healthy life expectancy for both sexes.