Population Growth and Healthy Life
Expectancy
Last updated: August 2008
The EU15 is comprised of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Over the period 1997 to 2007 the population of the EU15 has grown at a higher rate than the population of Scotland. However, Scotland’s population growth rate has risen considerably since 2003. Between 2006 and 2007, Scotland’s population grew by 0.53%, whilst the population of the EU15 grew by 0.57%. In the previous period, 2005 to 2006, the population growth rates for Scotland and the EU15 were 0.43% and 0.53%, respectively. The Scottish Government has set a target to match average European (EU15) population growth over the period from 2007 to 2017, supported by increased healthy life expectancy in Scotland over this period.
Annual Population Growth, EU15 and Scotland, 1997-98 to 2006-07
Source: Eurostat, and General Register Office for Scotland
Life expectancy, the number of years that a person can expect to live on average, is a single measure of population health which is used to monitor public health, health inequalities, the outcome of health service interventions and to allocate resources.
Life expectancy at birth for Scots continues to improve, and recent trends show a slight narrowing of the gap between males and females to under 5.0 years in 2006 (males now having life expectancy at birth of 75.1 years compared with 80 years for females). However, life expectancy in Scotland remains low compared with most Western European countries. In terms of quality of life, healthy life expectancy at birth (based on a combination of life expectancy and self-assessed health (SAH)) has also increased over the longer term but at a slower rate than the increase in overall life expectancy. The gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy is greater for women than for men, suggesting that they spend more years of life in poor health.
Life Expectancy and Healthy Life Expectancy at Birth 1980-2006
Source: ISD Scotland
Publication
Mid-Year Population
Estimates
Europe in Figures (Published by Eurostat)
Healthy life expectancy in
Scotland