Life expectancy in the country consistently rose from the 18th century onward, but the rate of increase slowed from 2011 and stagnated in 2018. Social trends such as obesity rates within the country have consistently risen since the 1970s, while smoking rates have consistently decreased since then.
Health status
The Nuffield Trust and the Association for Young People's Health produced a report on the health of young people in February 2019, comparing the UK with 18 other similar European countries. They found that the UK had the highest rates of obesity, the highest rate of young people living with a longstanding condition, apart from Finland and Sweden, and, among 11 year olds, very low rates of exercise. However, the UK had some of the lowest smoking, suicide and road accidents.[2]
In 2013, life expectancy at birth was 83 years for women and 79 for men.[6] In 2016, life expectancy was found to be rising more slowly in the UK than in comparable nations.[7][8] In 2018, life expectancy in the UK stopped increasing.[9] There were 50,100 excess deaths during winter 2017/2018, mostly among older people, and the highest number since 1976; cold weather and problems with flu vaccine were blamed.[10]
Infant mortality
The reduction in infant mortality between 1960 and 2008 for the United Kingdom in comparison with France, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. The overall trend has meant a large improvement in health inside the United Kingdom.
Infant mortality rates have been decreasing since the early 1840s, due to general improvements in sanitation and diet and more recently because of improvements in midwifery and neonatal intensive care.[11]
The rising rates of childhood obesity were described as a "national emergency" by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in February 2016.[12] 28.1% of adults in the United Kingdom were recognised as clinically obese with a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 30 in 2014.[13] The increasing numbers of people with obesity leads to the growing number of diabetes diagnoses.[14]
Diabetes
Diabetes is a major concern in the UK as the number of diagnoses have doubled in the past 15 years. In 2021 there were 4.1 million people in the UK diagnosed with diabetes, 90% of them having type 2. There were a further 1 million people with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes and 13.6 million people were at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, half of which could be prevented.[14]
In 1974, 45% of the British population smoked. The smoking rate was down to 30% by the early-1990s, 21% by 2010, and 19.3% by 2013, the lowest level for eighty years.[15] In 2015, smoking rates in England had fallen to 16.9%.[16]
There were 361,216 cancer diagnoses in 2014 in the United Kingdom.[17]Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK (around 56,000 women and 375 men are diagnosed with the disease every year).[18]Cancer Research UK estimates that 15% of UK cancers are caused by smoking,[19] and 3-4% of UK cancers are related to alcohol consumption.[20]
In 2014, the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey reported that 17% of those surveyed in England met the criteria for a common mental disorder. About 37% of those were accessing mental health treatment. Those more severely affected were more likely to be accessing services.[21] In 2017 a survey found that 65% of Britons have experienced a mental health problem, with 26% having had a panic attack and 42% said they had suffered from depression.[22]
Rates of severe anxiety and depression among unemployed people increased from 10.1% in June 2013 to 15.2% in March 2017. In the general population the increase was from 3.4% to 4.1%.[23]
5,608 and 5,675 people aged 15 and over died by suicide in 2009 to 2011 respectively.[24][25] The share of deaths percentage wise in which suicide has contributed to has roughly remained under 1% since the 1990's.[26] The most recent figures for 2019 show that suicides made up 0.9% of deaths in the United Kingdom.[26]
An estimated 101,200 people are living with HIV in the UK (0.16% of the population), 13% of whom are unaware of their infection. Of those, 69% are men and 31% were women.[27] Just under half of those living with HIV are gay or bisexual men.[27] 1 in 7 gay or bisexual men in London are living with HIV, compared to 1 in 25 in the rest of the UK and less than 1 in 500 for the general population.[27]
6,095 people were newly diagnosed during 2015, a trend which has remained relatively constant since 2010.[28] An estimated 39% of diagnoses were late (likely to have been living with the virus for over three years).[27]
Disabled population pyramid in 2021 in England and Wales
In 2014 more than 11 million British people (excluding Northern Ireland) were reported to have a long term impairment or disability. The incidence rises with age. About 6% of children, 16% of working age adults and 45% of pensioners are reported as having a disability.[29]
In the United Kingdom, the purchase and distribution of vaccines is managed centrally, and recommended vaccines are provided for free by the NHS.[30]
Social and economic issues
The Black Report, published by the Conservative government in 1980, highlighted the relationship between socioeconomic status and health outcomes. It demonstrated greater inequality of mortality between occupational classes I and V both in 1970–72 and 1959–63 than in 1949–53.[31]
Climate change had made heat waves 30 times more likely in the UK and 3,400 people died from them in the years 2016–2019. Climate change-driven heatwaves in other countries important for crop production may also be more severe, which will have an indirect impact on the UK.[34] UK heat waves have implications for human health and can drive excess deaths, particularly among the elderly.[35] Heavy rainfall intensified by climate change killed at least 20 people in the UK and Ireland in 2023-2024.[36]
