Life expectancy
Glasgow gained four years of life, then it stopped
years — male life expectancy at birth, the lowest of Scotland's 32 council areas
What this means
People in Glasgow live shorter lives than anywhere else in Scotland.
Lives were getting longer until about 2012. Then it stopped.
Between 2001 and 2012, Glasgow men gained more than four years of life. Then it stopped. Since 2012 the line is flat for men and slightly falling for women — the same stall seen across Scotland, arriving alongside a decade of cuts to working-age benefits.
A boy born in Glasgow in 2017–19 could expect 73.6years. That is the lowest of Scotland's 32 council areas: 3.6 years below the Scottish average, and 6.9 years behind East Dunbartonshire, ten miles up the road.
Men — life expectancy at birth
Years · 2001–03 to 2017–19 · ONS
Women — life expectancy at birth
Years · 2001–03 to 2017–19 · ONS
All four series
Life expectancy at birth, years
Open the data table for every figure in both panels.
See the numbers behind this chart
| Period | Glasgow men | Scotland men | Glasgow women | Scotland women |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001-03 | 69.0 | 73.5 | 76.4 | 78.9 |
| 2002-04 | 69.3 | 73.8 | 76.4 | 79.0 |
| 2003-05 | 69.9 | 74.2 | 76.7 | 79.2 |
| 2004-06 | 70.4 | 74.6 | 76.9 | 79.5 |
| 2005-07 | 70.7 | 74.8 | 77.0 | 79.7 |
| 2006-08 | 70.7 | 75.0 | 77.1 | 79.8 |
| 2007-09 | 71.1 | 75.3 | 77.4 | 80.0 |
| 2008-10 | 71.7 | 75.8 | 77.9 | 80.3 |
| 2009-11 | 72.2 | 76.2 | 78.2 | 80.6 |
| 2010-12 | 72.6 | 76.5 | 78.5 | 80.7 |
| 2011-13 | 73.0 | 76.8 | 78.5 | 80.9 |
| 2012-14 | 73.3 | 77.1 | 78.7 | 81.1 |
| 2013-15 | 73.4 | 77.1 | 78.8 | 81.1 |
| 2014-16 | 73.4 | 77.1 | 78.9 | 81.1 |
| 2015-17 | 73.3 | 77.0 | 78.7 | 81.1 |
| 2016-18 | 73.4 | 77.1 | 78.7 | 81.1 |
| 2017-19 | 73.6 | 77.2 | 78.5 | 81.1 |
The technical detail
This is life expectancy at birth, averaged over three years at a time to smooth out random variation. It is not a prediction about any individual — it describes death rates in the population over those years, applied to a hypothetical newborn.
More recent ONS releases put Glasgow male life expectancy at 74.3 years for 2022–24, still the lowest or second-lowest in Great Britain. That release uses a different vintage of population estimates, so it is quoted here rather than spliced onto the chart.
Where this comes from
- Life Expectancy by Local Authority, time series — Office for National Statistics
Life expectancy at birth by sex, Glasgow and Scotland, 2001–03 to 2017–19.
This is what poverty costs, measured in years
Life expectancy is the slowest indicator to move and the hardest to argue with. It is also the one that shows the 2012 stall most clearly.
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