UK life expectancy falls to lowest level in a decade

Impact of coronavirus blamed as life expectancy falls to 78.6 years for boys born between 2020 and 2022, and to 82.6 for girls

Life expectancy across the UK has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, mainly owing to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, data shows.

Boys born between 2020 and 2022 can expect to live to 78.6 years, a decrease of 38 weeks compared with the same measure between 2017 and 2019. For girls, the expectancy for the same period was 82.6 years, having also fallen by 23 weeks compared with 2017 and 2019.