UK: Health System Outcomes - World Health Systems Facts

Life expectancy at birth (years), 2021: 80.1 years
Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births), 2023: 8
Under-five mortality rate (per 1000 live births), 2023: 4.5
Neonatal mortality rate (per 1000 live births), 2023: 2.7
Probability of dying from any of CVD, cancer, diabetes, CRD between age 30 and exact age 70 (%), 2021: 11.0%

Source: World health statistics 2025: monitoring health for the SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals. Tables of health statistics by country and area, WHO region and globally. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2025. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

Population aged 15 years and over rating their own health as bad or very bad, 2021: 7.4%
Population aged 15 years and over rating their own health as good or very good, by income quintile, 2021
– Highest quintile: 82.9%
– Lowest quintile: 62.5%
– Total: 72.9%
Life expectancy at birth, 2021: 80.4 years
Infant mortality, deaths per 1,000 live births, 2021: 4.0
Maternal mortality rate, deaths per 100,000 live births, 2020: 9.8
Congestive heart failure hospital admission in adults, age-sex standardized rate per 100,000 population, 2021: 113
Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease hospital admissions in adults, age-sex standardized rate per 100,000 population, 2021: 211
Adults aged 65 and over rating their own health as good or very good, 2019: 56%
Adults aged 65 and over rating their own health as poor or very poor, by income, 2018
– Lowest quintile: 13%
– Highest quintile: 6%
– Total: 12%
Limitations in daily activities in adults aged 65 and over, 2018
– Severe limitations: 21%
– Some limitations: 24%

Source: OECD (2023), Health at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, doi.org/10.1787/7a7afb35-en.

Life Expectancy at Birth, 2022: 82.16
Infant Mortality Rate, 2022 (per 1,000 live births): 3.21
Under-Five Mortality Rate, 2022 (per 1,000 live births): 3.74

Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2023). Data Portal, custom data acquired via website. United Nations: New York. Accessed 12 May 2023.

Neonatal Mortality Rate, 2021: 3
Infant Mortality Rate, 2021: 4
Under-5 Mortality Rate, 2021: 4
Maternal Mortality Ratio, 2020: 10

Note: “Under-5 mortality rate – Probability of dying between birth and exactly 5 years of age, expressed per 1,000 live births.
“Infant mortality rate – Probability of dying between birth and exactly 1 year of age, expressed per 1,000 live births.
“Neonatal mortality rate – Probability of dying during the first 28 days of life, expressed per 1,000 live births.”
“Maternal mortality ratio – Number of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births during the same time period (modelled estimates).”

Source: United Nations Children’s Fund, The State of the World’s Children 2023: For every child, vaccination, UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, Florence, April 2023.

Maternal Deaths Per 100,000 Live Births, 2020: 10

Source: Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2020: estimates by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group and UNDESA/Population Division. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2023. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

“Average life expectancy at birth in the United Kingdom increased from 76.8 to 81.2 years between 1995 and 2019 (Table 1.3) (slightly above 81.1 years in 2019, the average of EU-28 countries). Women persistently have a higher life expectancy than men, although this gap has narrowed slightly from 5.2 years in 1995 to 3.7 years in 2019 (Table 1.3). Provisional 2020 data for life expectancy at birth has been submitted to the OECD by gender, showing that life expectancy dropped to 78.4 years for men and 82.4 years for women, largely due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Increases in life expectancy were already stalling in the United Kingdom before the pandemic, and while life expectancy is comparable to the average of EU-28 countries, it is now lagging behind many other comparable high-income countries such as France (82.6 years in 2019), Italy (83.2 years in 2019) and Sweden (83.0 years in 2019) (World Bank, 2021) (see Section 7.5, Health system outcomes).

“There is considerable variation between the United Kingdom constituent countries in relation to life expectancy (see Section 7.5, Health system outcomes), which is reported over a 3-year period to account for yearly variation. For the period of 2018 to 2020, life expectancy for men was 79.3 in England, 76.8 in Scotland, 78.3 in Wales and 78.7 in Northern Ireland (ONS, 2020c). For the same period, life expectancy for women was 83.1 in England, 81.0 in Scotland, 82.1 in Wales and 82.4 in Northern Ireland (ONS, 2021e).”

Source: Anderson M, Pitchforth E, Edwards N, Alderwick H, McGuire A, Mossialos E. The United Kingdom: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2022; 24(1): i–192.

“It is challenging to analyse trends in causes of mortality for the United Kingdom because this is not routinely recorded, with the latest data available from 2016 (Table 1.3). For these overall statistics, there have been significant declines in deaths from circulatory diseases from 462.3 deaths per 100 000 people in 1995 to 192.6 deaths per 100 000 people in 2016. Similarly, for respiratory diseases, deaths have declined from 169.6 deaths per 100 000 people in 1995 to 102.2 per 100 000 people in 2016. There have been steady declines in deaths from malignant neoplasms (cancer) from 264.7 deaths per 100 000 people in 1995 to 216.4 deaths per 100 000 people in 2016, but deaths from malignant neoplasms have now overtaken deaths associated with circulatory and respiratory diseases. Deaths from communicable diseases, except for deaths caused by COVID-19, have remained relatively stable over the last two decades. Similarly, external causes of death, such as accidents, assault and intentional self-harm, have also remained stable.

“There are more detailed and recent data at the level of United Kingdom constituent countries, with causes of death routinely published at the disease level. For the 5-year average of age-standardised death rates for 2015 and 2019 in England, the leading causes of deaths were dementia and Alzheimer disease with 104.1 deaths per 100 000 people, ischaemic heart diseases with 99.0 deaths per 100 000 people and cerebrovascular diseases with 55.4 deaths per 100 000 (ONS, 2021d). For the same period in Wales, the leading causes of death were, ischaemic heart diseases with 116.0 deaths per 100 000 people, dementia and Alzheimer disease with 99.5 deaths per 100 000 people, and influenza and pneumonia with 66.2 deaths per 100 000 people (ONS, 2021d). Although both Scotland and Northern Ireland routinely report causes of death, they only published unstandardised figures, which are not comparable.”

Source: Anderson M, Pitchforth E, Edwards N, Alderwick H, McGuire A, Mossialos E. The United Kingdom: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2022; 24(1): i–192.

UK: Health System Outcomes - Life expectancy, mortality - National Health Service - National Policies - World Health Systems Facts

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Page last updated June 12, 2025 by Doug McVay, Editor.