Pensions - Articles - Life expectancy grows between most and least deprived areas

 Helen Morrissey, Senior Pensions and Retirement Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown: “Life expectancy varies massively depending on where you live and how wealthy you are and this data shows the gap continues to widen. In 2020-21 the average gap between the most and least deprived quintiles was 8.6 years for a man and 7.1 for a woman. This compares to 7.7 and 6.1 years respectively back in 2014-16. The COVID pandemic may well have impacted the data but the gulf between the least and most well-off remains clear.

 Drilling down into the data, you can see large regional disparities- average life expectancy for a man in the North-East is 77 compared to 80 for a man in the South-West but the differences within the regions are stark. A lower earning man in the North-East could potentially live over a decade less than one in the highest quintile in the same region.

 This has an enormous impact on retirement planning and working patterns. Healthy life expectancy is not included in this data but it is clear that working into their mid to late 60s simply won’t be an option for many people. Retirees also need to give a lot of thought to how much their income needs to last – for instance for many people there’s a very real chance their income may need to last them twenty years or more so care needs to be taken when planning how much income is drawn from an income drawdown pot for instance. It also highlights the importance of including up to date health data in any annuity quotes as this can result in a much higher income.”