Life expectancy of people born in Greater Manchester has fallen For the third successive year, and is now the lowest since 2009-11 – and, according to one expert, it’s not just because of Covid.
Recently released data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed the life expectancy of someone aged under 1 in Greater Manchester has fallen to 78.81.
Figures have been falling continually since a peak of 79.84 in 2019 up to 2022, the year with the most recent data.
While England and the North West have both also seen a decline in this period, they have not been as severe as within Greater Manchester.
From 2003, life expectancy across England was rising, reaching a peak of 81.49 in 2019, a percentage increase of 3.9%.
Greater Manchester improved on this slightly with a 4.2% increase – but in 2020 this trend ended with life expectancy in the region dropping by 1.29% - more than three times as much as the national decline of 0.42%.
While it would be easy to assume the Covid-19 pandemic is the sole reason for this decline, Abi O’Connor, a sociologist who specialises in research on regional inequalities within the UK, disagrees.
She said: “Covid obviously had a massive impact, but I don’t think we should just focus on Covid.
“This was happening long before Covid and it’s going to be happening long after.
“There are so many indicators that will impact declining life expectancy, but I would say financial insecurity is the most fundamental one.
“Chronic underfunding of services has really affected the North West, we’ve seen higher austerity cuts per head, per capita, in the North West than we have had in places like Oxfordshire.
“Councils which have statutory services requirements in the North West are much less funded than in richer regions in the UK and this will have a direct impact on the lives of people in terms of both everyday life and opportunities.”
O’Connor’s current work with the New Economics Foundation focuses on the housing crisis and she believes this too is having a huge impact both nationally and in the North West.
Over half (58%) of privately rented households in England are dealing with damp, mould and/or excessive cold, leading to a rise of related illnesses which impact life expectancy and cost the NHS an estimated £38,356,200 per year.
O’Connor said: “In the North West there is a much lower rate of council house stocks which means they are much more reliant on private landlords to buy housing, and because landlords aren’t regulated in this country, they can get away with leaving people in poor conditions.”
Dr K. Purdam, a social statistics lecturer at the University of Manchester, echoed similar sentiments.
He said: “Whilst shocking, the inequalities in health and life expectancy are long-term.
“Poverty and social inequalities are embedded in the UK society and successive governments have failed to tackle the underlying causes.”
Of course, the Covid pandemic was still a major contributor to the drastic drop in life expectancy across England from 2020.
Government data revealed the North West was the worst impacted region of England, with the highest number of deaths linked to Covid-19 per 100,000 of the population.
While the rate per 100,000 in England was 342.3, in the North West it was significantly higher at 400.1.
The ongoing cost of living crisis, which impacts access to basic needs such as heating and food, offers another explanation for the continued decline in life expectancy.
O’Connor added: “I don’t think those in power quite realise how chronically the cost-of-living crisis is going to affect us.”
Greater Manchester Boroughs – a comparison
The data also reveals the shocking disparities between the Greater Manchester boroughs, which had a four-year difference in life expectancy from the top to the bottom.
Of the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester, Trafford has the greatest life expectancy at 81.34 whereas Manchester is significantly lower at 77.01.
Stockport, the only other borough above the national average, was close to the top with a life expectancy of 81.10, but at the bottom, Manchester was below Salford by almost a year.
O’Connor offered insight into the causes of such significant gaps between boroughs.
She said: “In urban centres, particularly places like Manchester, it is much harder to access basic health appointments. Trying to access GPs and dentists in the city centre is nigh-on impossible and that’s definitely having a big impact.
“Of course, for people with long-term illnesses, not addressing them is going to reduce their life expectancy.”
She also noted the availability of healthy food in urban areas would further impact life expectancy, with areas such as Manchester often labelled as ‘food deserts’ which only have immediate access to convenience stores where affordable healthy food is less accessible.
Additionally, the 0.77% decline in Trafford since 2020 is significantly less than the average for Greater Manchester and across England.
The opposite is true of Manchester which has seen a decline of 1.79% since 2020, 0.5% more than the rest of the region.
Maya, 28, recently moved to Hulme with her partner Tom, 29, and said they have been struggling since they've been here.
She said: “My partner and I moved here recently for work and are shocked at how expensive living in Manchester is. Our living costs feel like they’ve doubled from where we lived beforehand, it’s really been a challenge.
“We haven’t turned on the heating in the year that we’ve been here because we simply can’t afford it right now. Obviously, that’s a concern for the future because when we have kids that won’t be possible.
“My partner hasn’t even registered with a GP here yet because the wait times are so long. When he’s needed to see a GP, it’s actually been easier for him to commute home and get an appointment there than it is to get one in Manchester.
“It’s crazy that if we lived just a few minutes further down the road in Trafford our life expectancy would be so much higher.
“Maybe we will have to move when we have kids!”
It is clear the declining life expectancy across England is a serious issue.
But, with a lower life expectancy and a greater decline in recent years, should the people of Greater Manchester and the North West be concerned?
O’Connor added: “This isn’t just a local problem. It’s local, it’s regional and it’s national and we need to acknowledge that and attack it from all three levels.
“This includes our councillors, our regional representatives like Andy Burnham and also Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer all working together.
“It has to come from every level - until we do that, we’ll never see an improvement in life expectancy.”
Featured image: Chris Curry - Unsplash
