According to the latest figures published yesterday, the life expectancy for a female baby born in Manchester today is still the lowest in the country at 80, though the gap between the North West and the South East is closing.
Analysis by the Office for National Statistics released yesterday reveals that life expectancy for newborn babies in English regions and Wales has increased by at least 5 years for boys and 3.4 years for girls over the last 20 years.
However, some regions have experienced greater increases than others, with falling death rates among those aged 65 and over driving the increases seen in life expectancy at birth.
Life expectancy for baby boys in 2011-13 ranged from 78 years in the North West to 80.4 years in the South East.
For baby girls, it ranged from 81.7 years in the North East to 84.1 years in London.
For newborn baby girls, life expectancy was highest in Chiltern at 86.4 years, 6.4 years longer than in Manchester with the lowest.
While for men at age 65, life expectancy was highest in Harrow at 21.1 years and lowest in Manchester at 16.0 years.
In general, life expectancy increased at a faster pace in London, the North East, North West and the Midlands than in any of the other southern regions. This meant that, for baby boys and girls, the gap in life expectancy between the regions with the highest and lowest figures has reduced.
The overall gap between male life expectancy the South East and the North West of England has narrowed by 14 per cent in the last four years, dropping from two years and 10 months to two years and five months.
