UK Health System Overview
Health System Rankings
Health System Outcomes
Coverage and Access
Consumer Costs
Health System Expenditures
Health System Financing
Preventive Healthcare
Life expectancy at birth (in years), 2023: 81.0 years
Percentage of population aged 65 and over vaccinated against influenza
– 2023: 78%
– 2019: 72%
Share of the population aged 65 and over (%)
– 2050: 25.07%
– 2023: 18.7%
Share of the population 80 and over (%)
– 2050: 9.38%
– 2023: 5.1%
Registered dementia prevalence among people aged 65 and over (rate per 1,000 population aged 65 and over) (England only), 2023: 43.02
Long-term care beds in institutions per 1,000 population aged 65 years or over
– 2023: 41.3
– 2013: 49.4
Total long-term care spending as a share of gross domestic product (%), 2023: 2.598%
Source: OECD (2025), Health at a Glance 2025: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, doi.org/10.1787/8f9e3f98-en.
Population, Midyear 2022: 67,508,936
Population Density (Number of Persons per Square Kilometer): 278.11
Life Expectancy at Birth, 2022: 82.16
Projected Population, Midyear 2030: 69,175,770
Percentage of Total Population Aged 65 and Older, Midyear 2022: 19.17%
Projected Percentage of Total Population Aged 65 and Older, Midyear 2030: 22.02%
Projected Percentage of Total Population Aged 65 and Older, Midyear 2050: 26.15%
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.
“Of note, each country experiences different health needs, with Wales and Scotland having a higher proportion of their populations aged 65 years and over (at 21.1% and 19.3%, respectively) than England (18.6%) (ONS, 2021g).”
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.
“The share of people aged 65 and over is steadily growing due to the rise in life expectancy in previous decades and the ageing of the large cohort aged 55–75 years (the ‘baby-boomer’ generation). In 2016, British people at age 65 could expect to live another 20 years, similar to 65-year-olds in the EU as a whole. Just over half of these years (10.8) will be lived without disability2 (Figure 4). There are no data covering the whole of the United Kingdom, but more than 40 % of people aged 65 years and over in England report having no chronic disease. Among those who do, more than 40 % reported having one chronic disease and more than 15 % stated that they had at least two. The rate of people with at least one chronic condition is slightly higher than the EU average. Most people in England are able to continue to live independently in old age, but around one in five people aged 65 and over reported some limitations in basic activities of daily living (ADL) such as dressing and eating. In addition, 34 % of English women aged 65 and over reported having symptoms of depression, compared to 23 % of men in this age group.”
Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2019), United Kingdom: Country Health Profile 2019, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.
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Page last updated September 11, 2026 by Doug McVay, Editor.