Health State Life Expectancy

Why Health State Life Expectancy Matters

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) 2026, explains that health state life expectancy measures not only how long people live, but how long they live in good health and free from disability providing a broader understanding of population health than life expectancy alone.

While life expectancy measures how long people can expect to live, healthy life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy help us understand how many of those years are likely to be lived in good health and free from disability. Together, these measures provide insight into both the length and quality of life experienced by a population.

As mentioned in the Marmot review, health state life expectancy is influenced by a wide range of social, economic and environmental factors, including income, education, employment, housing and access to services. The Marmot Review highlights how inequalities in these wider determinants can lead to substantial differences in health outcomes between communities. As a result, populations can experience relatively favourable overall health outcomes whilst still experiencing significant inequalities within local areas.

Understanding health state life expectancy is therefore important not only for monitoring population health, but also for identifying health inequalities and supporting action to improve both the length and quality of life for all residents.

This report provides an overview of current patterns and trends in health inequalities and healthy life expectancy in Wirral. Improving these outcomes requires co-ordinated action across many organisations, services and communities. For more information, Wirral’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2027, sets out the locally agreed priorities and partnership approach for improving health and reducing inequalities.

Executive Summary

Key Messages

Health inequalities in Wirral are substantial, with significant differences between MSOAs in life expectancy, healthy life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy.
The same communities consistently experience the poorest outcomes across all three measures, particularly Birkenhead Central, Tranmere, Bidston Hill, Seacombe, Poulton and Birkenhead South.
Inequalities in healthy life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy are considerably larger than inequalities in life expectancy, demonstrating that differences in quality of life exceed differences in longevity.
Poor outcomes are overrepresented nationally, with a disproportionate concentration of Wirral MSOAs amongst the poorest-performing areas in England across all three measures.
MSOAs with the poorest health outcomes also tend to perform less favourably across a range of wider determinants spanning the life course, highlighting the importance of addressing the broader social, economic and environmental factors that influence health.

Conclusion

Whilst Wirral performs relatively well overall compared with many similar local authorities, substantial inequalities remain between communities. Reducing these inequalities will require sustained action across the life course to improve both the length and quality of life for all residents.