Life expectancy in England and Wales highest in East Dorset

People in East Dorset have the highest life expectancy in the country, according to the latest official figures which show a continuing stark north-south divide.

Both men and women appear to benefit from the climate or, more likely, the lifestyle of East Dorset, which extends from Weymouth on the coast inland to Dorchester and Blandford Forum. In 2009-11, according to the Office for National Statistics, it had the highest male life expectancy at birth in England and Wales, which was 83 years. Women also had the highest life expectancy there, at 86.4 years.

The lowest life expectancies were in the north of England. Men in Blackpool had the lowest average at birth, which was 73.8 years - nine years less than their compatriots in East Dorset. The lowest for women was in Manchester, where women could expect to live to an average of 79.3 years - seven years less than those in East Dorset.

The north-south divide in life expectancy matches patterns of socio-economic deprivation. Successive governments have had little success in their attempts to tackle it.

A study published in 2010 in the British Medical Journal looked at the data from 1965 to 2008 and found that, among deaths from all causes, inequalities in the north-south divide "were severe and persistent" over the four decades. It found that people in the north were a fifth more likely to die prematurely - defined as before the age of 75. The authors found that "many factors might plausibly determine the northern excess mortality, including socioeconomic, environmental (including working conditions), educational, epigenetic, and lifestyle, which may act over the whole life course, and possibly over generations."

The economic disparities between north and south were marked, it said, and government policies between 2000 and 2008, aimed specifically at evening out health inequalities, had failed to make much difference.