Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy data help us understand not just how long people live, but also the quality of those years, indicating how long someone can expect to live in good health.
This dashboard allows you to explore data on life expectancy and health life expectancy in Scotland.
We look at the data for period life expectancy at birth. This data is not an accurate prediction of how long a person born today will live, but it is a useful measure of population health at a point in time and is most useful for comparing trends over time, across different populations, regions within a country and between nations.
It is calculated based on the average age of death among people with similar characteristics, such as current age group, sex, and where they live. It can be used to monitor and investigate health inequalities and to set public health targets. Life expectancy is also used to inform pensions policy, research and teaching.
Healthy life expectancy is closely related to life expectancy. It is the average number of years that someone can expect to live in good general health, based on self-reported health status. It should be noted that as of July 2025, the accreditation of the Healthy life expectancy has been suspended.
Updated: 20 February 2026
More information can be found on the National Records of Scotland website.
Data sources:
- Healthy life expectancy, UK: between 2011 to 2013 and 2022 to 2024 (Office for National Statistics)
- Healthy Life Expectancy, 2022-2024 (National Records of Scotland)
Download the data:
Andrew Aiton, Data Visualisation Manager and Health and Social Care team.