Shetlanders live longer than average Scots
Life expectancy in Shetland is comfortably above the Scottish average, according to latest statistics published by the National Records of Scotland.
Figures for the years 2011- 2013 show life expectancy at birth for men being 77.85 years and for women, 82.48 years.
The Scottish life expectancy is 76.8 years for men and 80.9 years for women.
The outlook is particularly good for women in the NHS Shetland area, who are already 65 – they can expect to live another 20.8 years. However this is topped by women in the East Dunbartonshire council area, who can look forward to another 21.5 years, if they have reached the age of 65.
East Dunbartonshire council area also tops the charts for having the highest life expectancy anywhere in Scotland, with men at 80.5 years and women at 83.9 years.
This is in stark contrast to the Glasgow City council area, where men and women can expect to live 73.0 years and 78.5 years respectively, the lowest in Scotland.
Taken by NHS boards, the highest male life expectancy is in the Borders (79.3 years) while the highest female life expectancy is in Orkney (82.5 years).
Meanwhile life expectancy at birth for both men and women is highest in remote and rural areas, which includes all of Shetland. Men can expect to live to an average 79.2 years and women 82.6 years. This is 3.6 and 2.3 years longer respectively than in large urban areas, where life expectancy for both sexes is the lowest.
Life expectancy increases as deprivation decreases – at birth for men in the 10 per cent least deprived areas it is 82.4 years, which is 12.5 years more than in the most deprived areas, where it is 69.9 years.
Women in the same least deprived areas can expect to live for 84.8 years, whereas in the most deprived areas it is only 76.3 years.
However, life expectancy for both sexes is rising across Scotland.
fraser cluness
do we blame this one on the council or the goverment? 😉
stella smith
Think the main reason, is difference in life styles, we have fresher air, less eat from takeaway more days than not, in Shetland compare to Glasgow.
David Spence
I agree with Stella, the quality and standard of life in Shetland is very good indeed.
However, with the Council being forced to make drastic cuts to budgets (closing the schools’, when it should be the Leisure Centres’) due to this vile Tory Governments strategy to privatise all state run services…….
(we cannot afford to keep Local Authority Services going, but we can give the biggest rooks in society (the banks) £142 billion to keep them going and spend £5.1 billion a month on illegal wars)
by undermining Local Authority performance to the extent the public demand better services whereupon they will be (as is happening with the NHS in England and Wales) directed solely to the private sector.
Is there a connection between the billions given to the banks and the cuts forced onto Local Authorities, of course there is? It just wouldn’t be proper, especially in the eyes of a vile Tory, to criticise the richest and the most controlling institute in western society.
ian tinkler
Shetlanders take far more exercise than most Scots. Thousands of calories burnt just trying to stay upright in the teeth of the wind.