Life expectancy below average

Average life expectancy in Portadown, Armagh and Lurgan is similar to, or lower than the Northern Ireland average, figures released by the Department of Health have revealed.

The Department’s Health Inequalities Report 2020 highlights how life expectancy can vary across the Council’s district electoral areas.

The report also shows how, in general, life expectancy is lower for men than it is for women.

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At birth, across Northern Ireland, the average male life expectancy in 2016-18 is 78.7 years. This is an increase on the 78.5 years recorded between 2015-17.

The figure is actually slightly higher in Armagh, where the average life expectancy for males is 79.2 years.

However, in Lurgan the average life expectancy is 78.1 years and in Portadown it is just 77 years.

Banbridge and Craigavon male life expectancy at birth is 79.1 years and 78.7 years respectively.

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The average life expectancy of a female at birth in Northern Ireland in 2016-18 is 82.4 years.

Across ABC Council, the average female life expectancy at birth is above the Northern Ireland average and stands at 82.9 years.

Lurgan’s female life expectancy at birth is above the Northern Ireland average at 83.2 years while both Armagh and Portadown’s is below the country’s average.

In Armagh, average life expectancy of a female at birth in 2016-18 is 81.9 years while in Portadown it is 81.5 years. Craigavon’s is 82.8 years while Banbridge’s is 83.4 years.

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Much like the rest of Northern Ireland, deprivation also has a role to play in life expectancy within ABC Borough Council.

Amongst men, average life expectancy of the Council’s most deprived residents is 76.1 years, three years less than the average for all men in the area of 79.1 years.

A similar difference can be seen when comparing the female life expectancy of those women who live in the most deprived areas of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council.

The average life expectancy of a female in the Council’s most deprived areas is 81.3 years while the average life expectancy of the Council’s female population is  82.9 years.

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This shows that females in the most deprived areas can expect to live 1.6 years less than the average female in the ABC area.

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