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A new Health Foundation study has warned that the U.K. has reached a “watershed moment” as people continue to live longer lives, but spend more of those years in poor health.
The analysis found that healthy life expectancy, which refers to the number of years a person can expect to live in good health, fell by around two years between 2012-14 and 2022-24. It now stands at 60.7 years for men and 60.9 years for women, while overall life expectancy has remained broadly stable across the country.
The report points out that the decline is mainly linked to worsening self-reported health, especially among working-age adults, rather than changes in death rates alone.
In more than 90% of local areas, healthy life expectancy has now fallen below the U.K. state pension age of 66, meaning many people may start facing health problems before they retire.
The study also highlights sharp regional and social divides. In England, the gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and the least deprived areas has widened to about 20 years.
In some communities, people begin to experience poor health more than a decade before retirement, underlining how strongly living conditions can shape long-term health outcomes.
Internationally, the U.K. now ranks near the bottom among high-income countries for healthy life expectancy, with only the United States performing worse.
The Health Foundation called for urgent action across government, focusing on prevention, inequality and the wider social factors that shape health. It warned that failing to act would increase both human and economic costs.
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