While in most areas of East Lancashire life expectancy has now risen above pre-pandemic levels, some boroughs have among the lowest life expectancies in England.
New figures show across the UK how long babies born between 2022 and 2024 would live are now back at pre-pandemic levels, with a life expectancy on average at 83 years for girls and 79.1 years for boys.
Life expectancy has risen steadily in recent decades before slowing and plateauing in the 2010s, and dropping slightly in the years hit by Covid-19 (2019-2021).
Women’s expectancy is now back at pre-pandemic levels, but for men it still trails the pre-Covid level of 79.3 years.
However, in Hyndburn, figures have not caught up for women, resulting in the borough having the second lowest life expectancy in England.
The current expectancy is 80, below the pre-Covid figure of 80.7. It’s different for men, with the current expectancy, 76.6, compared to 76.4 before, but the figures still trail more than two years behind the national average.
Babies born in every East Lancashire borough bar the Ribble Valley can expect, on average, not to hit the UK average life expectancy, though all have improved from Covid years.
Burnley has the seventh-worst rate in England for both boys and girls, at 76.1 (from 75.7) for boys, and 80.3 (from 80) for girls.
Blackburn with Darwen ranks ninth in both lists, at 80.4 for women and 76.5 for men, from Covid levels of 80.3 and 75.5, respectively.
For women in Rossendale, they can expect to hit 81.4, while in Pendle, it is 81.9.
For the men, the Rossendale figure has actually dropped by 0.2 to 77.5 years, while in Pendle, the figure is 78.
For the Ribble Valley, the figures are above the national average, at 84.9 years for women and 81.3 for men.
Elsewhere in Lancashire, Blackpool has the worst life expectancy for women in England (the fourth worst in the UK) at 79.1, down from 79.3 during the Covid years, and almost four years below the national average.
For boys, it has the worst life expectancy in the UK at 73.7 years, more than five years below average.
Greg Ceely, ONS head of population life events, said: “UK life expectancy has increased for both men and women in the most recent period.
“At the national level, this marks a return to pre-pandemic levels for women, although for men, life expectancy remained just below 2017 to 2019 levels.
“However, life expectancy varies depending on where you live.
“The areas with the highest life expectancy tend to be in the south of England, while life expectancy is lowest in the north of England and Scotland.”
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