1.4 Health status
Average life expectancy at birth in the United Kingdom increased from 73.7
to 81 years between 1980 and 2013 (Table 1.3) (slightly above the EU average
of 79.9 years in 2013). Healthy life years at birth (the number of years of life
lived in good health) have remained fairly stable for the past 10 years, with
some fluctuation for age 65 and over, especially among women (Table 1.4). In
a recent study it was shown that the United Kingdom came only 12th out of 19
comparable high-income countries in terms of the number of years individuals
spend in good health (Murray et al., 2013).