# Female life expectancy

How many years a baby girl born in the area could expect to live, based on deaths over three years, from the ONS local area life expectancy tables.

## Facts

- Published by: Office for National Statistics
- Level of detail: Council
- Updates: Every few years
- History: Since 2001-2003
- Licence: Open Government Licence 3.0
- Levels: United Kingdom, Nation, Region, Council

## Periods

| Level | First | Latest | Periods |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| United Kingdom | 2001 to 2003 | 2022 to 2024 | 22 |
| Nation | 2001 to 2003 | 2022 to 2024 | 22 |
| Region | 2001 to 2003 | 2022 to 2024 | 22 |
| Council | 2001 to 2003 | 2022 to 2024 | 22 |

## Coverage

| Nation | Areas | With a figure |
| --- | --- | --- |
| England | 296 | 294 |
| Wales | 22 | 22 |
| Scotland | 32 | 32 |
| Northern Ireland | 11 | 11 |

## Gaps

- ONS does not calculate life expectancy for the City of London or the Isles of Scilly because they have too few deaths and too small a population: 2 (Isles of Scilly, City of London)

## Caveats

- Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a baby born in the area would live if the death rates of the last three years stayed the same for the rest of their life. It describes the area's recent death rates, not what will happen to any one person.
- Each figure uses deaths over three years, so neighbouring periods share two years of data.
- Small areas have wide margins of error. Open Index marks a figure as use with caution when ONS's 95% range spans more than two years.
- Periods from 2019 to 2021 onward include the coronavirus pandemic, which lowered life expectancy in many areas.
- English councils are the lower-tier councils (districts, unitary authorities and boroughs). Counties are not shown. Boundaries are as of August 2025 for every period.
- The City of London and the Isles of Scilly are not calculated because they have too few deaths and too small a population.
- ONS gives the nation and UK figures as a comparator only. Its national life tables are the main source for those.

## Example: Hackney

A baby girl born in Hackney could expect to live 82.9 years, based on deaths in 2022 to 2024.
In London the figure is 84.7 years.
For the UK as a whole it is 83.0 years.
Hackney is 143rd lowest of 359 for female life expectancy.

https://openindex.co.uk/hackney

## Sources

### Life expectancy for local areas of the UK

- Publisher: Office for National Statistics
- Licence: [Open Government Licence 3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)
- Edition: Life expectancy 2022 to 2024
- Published: 10 December 2025
- Fetched: 15 October 2026
- Updates: irregular
- Credit: Source: Office for National Statistics, Life expectancy for local areas of the UK, licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0.
- Publisher's page: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/datasets/lifeexpectancyforlocalareasoftheuk

## Use it

- [The map](https://openindex.co.uk/map/life-expectancy-female)
- [Ranking](https://openindex.co.uk/rankings/life-expectancy-female/uk)
- Download (Council): https://data.openindex.co.uk/s/2026.10.8/downloads/layers/life-expectancy-female/council.csv
- API: https://openindex.co.uk/v1/layers/life-expectancy-female

## How to cite

Source: Open Index, openindex.co.uk. Link to this page, https://openindex.co.uk/sources/life-expectancy-female.

Open Index's own text and the figures it works out are licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Source data keeps its publishers' licences, named with each figure. Give each figure's period and source with it.

- Source: Office for National Statistics, Life expectancy for local areas of the UK, licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0.

Snapshot 2026.10.8, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23508850. The HTML page: https://openindex.co.uk/sources/life-expectancy-female