• people in rural areas lived longer than those in urban areas – an additional 2.1 years for males
and 1.4 years for females
• there was a difference of 7.8 years for males and 5.4 years for females between the most
deprived and least deprived fifth of areas, suggesting that pockets of poor health exist across
England
• in the least deprived fifth of areas, urban life expectancies were slightly higher than rural life
expectancies for both men and women. However, in the other fifths, life expectancy was lower
in urban areas than in rural areas
• in terms of sparsity, there was little difference in life expectancy between sparse and less
sparse areas within the rural and urban area types. However, variations were observed when
deprivation was taken into account and greater differences were evident in less sparse areas
than in sparse areas
• figures for local authorities in England show that life expectancy improved in all areas over the
1991–93 to 2006–08 period, by 4.2 years on average for males and 2.9 years for females.
However, although variations in life expectancies between regions in England have reduced,
differences between the local authorities with the highest and lowest figures widened over this
period