People in UK spend fewer years in good health than a decade ago, study finds

[GingerBeverage]

People in the UK are spending fewer years in good health than a decade ago, prompting concern that the population’s health is “going backwards”.
The sharp decline in Britain’s healthy life expectancy, the amount of time someone spends free of illness or disability, is in sharp contrast to its recent rise in most other rich countries globally.
The UK population’s health is poor, getting worse and not undergoing the same steady improvement seen in countries such as Japan, Norway and Spain, according to a new analysis of healthy life expectancy in 21 countries by the Health Foundation thinktank. It went up by an average of four-tenths of a year across the 20 other comparable countries.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/apr/27/people-in-uk-spend-fewer-years-in-good-health-than-a-decade-ago-study-finds

What's different about the UK compared to countries with improving rates?

Off the top of my head, high and increasing rates of obesity; poor diet; not enough physical activity. The current state of the NHS can't be helping.

It's depressing isn't it?

I think it's NHS decline, shit diet (it's genuinely hard, for example, if you are out for the day, to find a quick thing to eat that isn't massively UPF), lack of exercise/outside spaces for active travel and generally health decline since Covid, with working from home and lots of people (in my circles away) with long covid and other long-term conditions.

It's CRAP. Our lives are just declining now.

GPs must get bored of telling their patients to lose a bit of weight and move more.

Car dependency - driving a mile, less to the shop

Drinking at home

Not doing anything advised to help your own personal physical and mental health.

The information is widely available and people choose not to follow it.

There is only so much the Government and NHS can do. Horse-water etc etc

Link to original release.

https://www.health.org.uk/reports-and-analysis/analysis/healthy-life-expectancy-trends-in-the-uk-a-watershed-moment

Compared with 20 high-income countries, the UK performs poorly on healthy life expectancy. Between 2011 and 2021, healthy life expectancy increased or remained stable in 16 countries; the UK experienced a decline alongside only the Netherlands, Canada, Germany and the United States, with the second largest reduction among these nations. As a result, the UK fell from 14th to 20th out of 21 countries and now only ranks above the United States.

I agree that environment has an impact at a societal level, but at an individual level I think it's important not to absolve yourself of responsibility for your health. The environmental factors apply to the whole population, but some people decide they are going to exercise anyway, take a homemade lunch when they're out for the day, etc. It's choice. That choice is easier for people with more time and who live in environments more conducive to pleasant outdoor exercise (park areas, better weather in the south/east, safety at night, etc) BUT anyone can do it, if they want to enough.

You can't choose if you get random health conditions obviously, but you can decrease your chances of the preventable ones by making better choices.

Vaping can't be helping. It's good that far fewer people smoke cigarettes, cigars and pipes, but a lot who would have smoked previously are now puffing away at vapes. I am no scientist but surely it can't be healthy to do that.

I'm always amazed on here when people mention drinking huge quantities of soft drinks every day, whether they're full of sugar or artificial sweetener. That's another thing that I would wonder about.

What do we have in common with Netherlands, Canada, Germany and US though?

We are seeing the effects of the austerity years, underfunding of the NHS and losing other services (such as Sure Start), was always going to result in this. Add on cost of living which has been going up since Brexit really, then Covid, and you have a perfect storm. Don’t invest in the health and happiness of your population and this is what you will see.

I read this on the BBC, it's very sad!

I was raised on pot noodles, crispy pancakes, frozen pizzas, Sunny D and crisp sandwiches. I ate healthily since I left home in the 00s.

My parents and my parents in law still consume a lot of UPF! They're mid 70s now.

I think attitudes around UPF and general fitness are changing though! (I hope!)

We have very poor access to preventative healthcare now.

Almost no one can get nhs dentistry where I live. Lots of people can't afford private so just don't go. Until they have issues and need antibiotics and extractions.

Health visitors no longer have a relationship with their families and see women antenatal and regularly post partum as well as being a good source of info and things like vitamins for nighters and babies. There are no drop in clinics here now. Things like hearing and siteissues rely on parents seeking help, not routine surveillance.

Referrals for speech and language, physio, dieticians, mental health services etc are years long - so long as to be irrelevant.

Pedestrians and cyclists are systematically treated as a nuisance or irrelevant in planning, building, transport and roads. Active travel is not only hard but obstructed. Our whole infrastructure prioritises cars and reduces opportunities for activity.

Structured sports and exercise are expensive and exclusive. PE and movement in schools is uninspiring and minimal. Active travel is not supported, facilitated or encouraged.

Access to good quality food is really really hard for people living in many places. V poor choice of shops and expensive pricing.

Lack of smoking I reckon. People smoke now a lot less than they used to.

It’s NHS breakdown and lack of time.

I know people who have had minor issues (like an ear infection) but because of lack of face to face GP appointments they are given wrong medication - this then spirals into them needing hospital care and waiting list for that. All the while they’re feeling very unwell, and it’s hard to exercise if you’re feeling poorly. I also know a child who is on the never ended waiting list for tonsils meanwhile they’re missing lots of school with the add on disruption for their working parents - and again rubbish for them being so poorly regularly.

Then lack of time. So many people are working extra hours to scrape by. I think it’s a double edged sword of lots of people working from home which is incredibly sedentary or having a long commute - both cause problems. Reasonably I don’t know how you can fit in exercise say you’re getting ready and kids ready for school, drop them off at breakfast club, drive to work, work all day, often without lunch hours depending on your profession, drive back, pick up kids, maybe get them to an activity and feed them, do some of the house chores. Obviously there is the five am club etc but sleep is also really important for health. It’s relentless and will have an impact on health outcomes that most of my friends with young families are constantly one thread away from chaos and stress. And chaos and stress will happen - kids are off school, need potty training etc etc.

I read this earlier. I have commented on previous similar posts before re: pension age rising and life expectancy/ health decline. Which a good proportion of people are in denial about.

Yes people are living longer, but not in good health. I see this daily in my line of work. The vast majority of people will not be able to work until they are 67/68. This study proves it.

There absolutely will be an increase in sickness related benefits being claimed until state pension kicks in, which is already starting, as indicated in the article.

@WydeStrype absolutely. It's 3 miles to our nearest town. But it's £3 for a single on the bus or £6 return. We can't afford it!

Carpark is £2.50.

We can't walk there because there's no
pavements! We can't cycle there because there's no cycle path or cycle lane.

It frustrates me because I love walking and I love cycling.

We used to have an off road cycle path all the way to town but they built on it to make way for a wider road

Completely agree. Many 30+ with young children/children are teetering on burnout. Hence convience foods, lack of exercise. Because they’re exhausted- myself included my day starts 5:45am by the time we (DH and I) have finished work, picked the kids up, homework, bath etc and think about making a meal its 8pm. Both have stressful day time jobs.

50+ are often sandwich carers for aging parents and often helping with grandkids and most likely working somewhere between full and part time therefore pulled in all directions too and again exhausted, also may be starting to experience their own odd ailments.

I am not surprised.

We have over-stretched health and social services, poor housing provision, people expected to work long hoursz too much junk food consumption and a cost of living crisis.

No wonder people are less healthy.

I think it is also to do with governments and employers obsessed with productivity and profits but never with contributing to and promoting the mental and physical well being of the nation.

Yes to lack of exercise and poor diet but some of this is surely more people surviving things like cancer and heart attacks that would have killed tem in their 50s and 60s decades earlier?

I think UPF consumption has a lot to do with it too. That is certainly one of the features we have in common with the USA, Canada and Germany. Our bodies are not designed to handle emulsifiers, sweeteners, gums, nitrates and all the other junk you find in UPFs.

We are time poor and knackered and this really doesn't help. I was talking to a friend last week who was worrying about her child's weight but then saying they both work full time, come home knackered, child is a fussy eater so it's easy to just put a ready meal in the microwave or air fry them some nuggets. It makes sense in the short term when life is busy but I think we're starting to see the impact in the population's health now.

Lifestyle is different to the countries in the op who have lower rates of obesity. Maybe GLP-1 will help wherever they are used enough. No shame in it, some food types can be addictive and it’s a game changer in terms of actually working.

I think it's food, because the Netherlands has great active transport and they are faring similarly. To understand more you need to drill down futher into the data to see exactly who is getting prematurely ill. It's not middle class white people. All of the countries in the list have a lot of recent immigrants from south asia, who may adapt especially badly to a UPF diet, and may not thrive on a western city lifestyle.

Who decides how many years of healthy life anyone had, it seems very subjective? And how is it defined? If you had a heart problem from birth would it be zero?

But there could be lots of reasons, Covid, were we particularly badly affected along with those other countries? Immigration from poor countries of people with already poor health. Sedentary life style, poor dietary choices, obesity, diabetes, air pollution in cities, deteriorating housing stock, fewer GPs - bigger patient load, under funding of the NHS, school playgrounds disappearing, more mental health problems, vaccine refusal. and I'm sure there are many more.

Austerity. And low sick pay / benefits /
State pensions compared to other countries. During Covid they put UC up £20 week because they knew it wasn’t enough for people to survive on. Yet bizarrely they then put it back down forcing people back into poverty. Have other countries normalised food banks like we have? It’s been tackled before eg vouchers for fruit for kids. People can’t choose healthier options if their food budget is too low for essentials. It’s the same reason child poverty has gone up. High housing costs for very low quality poorly regulated housing is another problem in UK.

Hopefully the wider use of weight loss drugs will help.

The article indicates that this decline happened over the recent decade.

It could be the rise of justeat didn’t help. Now people don’t need to even get as far as their car they just need to get to the front door.

People can remain in their houses and get everything delivered so there is no necessity to go outside. Perhaps when people had to leave their house and interact with retail staff and do a tiny bit of walking their depression wasn’t as all consuming and gradually improved.

There are a surprising number of people who won’t go for free screening tests.
Men who won’t go to the GP about impotence which can be a sign of heart issues because of embarrassment.

There are posts on here from women with partners who say they are depressed, can’t face working, but don’t go to the GP, or exercise just a walk, or stop drinking, or stop doomscrolling.

We have one side of the population saying the government should do more and the other saying no more nanny state we can make our own decisions.

We don’t look at the USA and think, yeah convenience and blame culture isn’t the best idea we think, great convenience and blame let’s have more of that.

We are turning into a nation of brats who don’t want to take responsibility for our own actual bodies.

I was at the till in a supermarket and the shopper in front had a whole conveyer belt of crap, frozen heat and eat, at least x3 packets of 12 crisis, 36 packets of crisps, flavoured sugared yogurts, there were shelves and fridges full of fresh food. These are choices. They were a grown adult they can buy and eat what they like.

The NHS wasn’t created to fight this, but it does try.

I was at the till in a supermarket and the shopper in front had a whole conveyer belt of crap, frozen heat and eat, at least x3 packets of 12 crisis, 36 packets of crisps, flavoured sugared yogurts, there were shelves and fridges full of fresh food. These are choices. They were a grown adult they can buy and eat what they like.

I agree about this. I saw something on X the other day saying that people talk about food deserts as a problem of lack of shops selling suitable food, but even when there are shops selling fresh food people don't necessarily buy it. There's been a huge loss of knowledge about how to buy, store, prepare and eat fresh food. It's not taught in a useful way in most schools and lots of people don't learn this at home. Then there's the fact that if you do buy food and try cooking but it doesn't go well or your family reject it because it's unfamiliar that's discouraging and expensive. The really cheap ready meals and beige oven food can work out cheaper than buying good quality fresh food too, which doesn't help.