Most of us know roughly how long people tend to live. Fewer people know how many of those years are usually spent in good health. The difference between the two is one of the clearest ways to understand why prevention matters.
Life expectancy is the average number of years a person could expect to live if current death rates stayed the same throughout their life.
Healthy life expectancy is the average number of those years a person could expect to spend in "very good" or "good" general health. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) bases it on how people describe their own general health in a large household survey, the Annual Population Survey, combined with population and death data.
Put simply, one measure counts years. The other counts years in good health.
The ONS published its latest estimates on 19 February 2026, covering the three years 2022 to 2024.
Compared with 2019 to 2021, the ONS reports that healthy life expectancy fell by 1.8 years for males and 2.5 years for females, even though life expectancy rose slightly over the same period. Healthy life expectancy is now at its lowest level since the series began in 2011 to 2013.
There are differences within the UK. England had the highest healthy life expectancy (60.9 years for males and 61.3 years for females). Scotland had the lowest for males (59.1 years) and Wales the lowest for females (58.5 years).
Source: Office for National Statistics, Healthy life expectancy, UK: between 2011 to 2013 and 2022 to 2024, released 19 February 2026.
The ONS classes these figures as "official statistics in development" because the survey sample has become smaller. Each estimate has a range of uncertainty around it, so small changes should be read with care.
These numbers describe the population as a whole. They do not tell you how many healthy years you personally have ahead of you. There are three reasons for this.
Figures at birth also differ from what applies to someone who has already reached 50 or 60. What the national figures do show clearly is that, on average, a large share of later life is spent in less than good health, and that this share has been growing.
It helps to separate what is well established from what is still being worked out.
Regular physical activity, including muscle strengthening on at least two days a week, not smoking, and finding and managing raised blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar all reduce the risk of conditions that commonly limit later life. These are the basis of UK public health guidance.
Sleep, diet quality, social connection and managing stress are linked with better health in later life. The evidence is strong for some of these and more mixed for others, and it is harder to show cause and effect.
No individual test, supplement or therapy has been shown to extend a person's healthy life expectancy. Claims that a product "adds healthy years" go beyond the current evidence, and that includes any service Vivarta may offer in future.
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