British women now have the second-lowest life expectancy in western Europe.
A new report has found that women in the UK can expect to only live for 82 years and nine months – five months shorter than the previous year.
And even while they are alive, the study from Public Health England said, British women spend an average of 19 years in poor health.
This all means that women in Britain come second only to Denmark for shortest life expectancy – and are three years behind Spain, where women live the longest.
Experts said the low ranking was because of a legacy of heavy smoking by British women since World War II.
Professor Peter Goldblatt, from UCL’s Institute of Health Equity, told the Sun on Sunday: ‘Women in this country started smoking in large numbers during the Second World War when they began to work in factories.When is February half term and why did schools introduce it?
‘So the epidemic of smoking among women happened earlier [in Britain] than among women in other European countries.’
British men’s life expectancy is even lower than women’s, at just 79 years and two months.
However, this gap is closing – and British men do seem to be doing better than most of their European counterparts, coming in second-highest after Sweden for male life expectancy.
There is also a strong – and stark – correlation between wealth and health, even within the UK.Man who knowingly infected gran, 82, with HIV jailed for breaching order
On average men living in more deprived areas of England could expect to live nine years less than men in the least deprived areas. For women, this was seven years.
A PHE spokesperson told The Times: ‘For most people the ingredients for a healthy life are a good education, a good job, a healthy diet, a suitable roof over your head, and people to care for and about.’