Live data · ONS · OHID · Open Government Licence

How many healthy years does your postcode get?

Lifemap uses official UK open data to show how life expectancy and healthy life expectancy change across the country, from one postcode to the next.

Enter a UK postcode
No signup. No ads. No personal prediction. Just public data, made visible.
Try
FIG. 01 · two postcodes · 1 sq = 1 year
A life, mapped
Same country. Sixteen fewer healthy years.
Each square is one year. The colour shows whether that year is likely to be lived in good health — based on where the person lives.
Kensington and Chelsea
SW3 1AA · London
0healthy years
Blackpool
FY1 2AA · North West
0healthy years
16 healthy-year gap between two postcodes a 4-hour train apart.
Healthy years Years with poorer health Beyond local LE
§ 01 · RESULT FY1 2AA · Blackpool
Your area, in years

Life expectancy at birth
Total expected years of life
Healthy life expectancy
Years lived in good general health
Years not in good health
The healthy-life gap for this area
FIG. 02
§ 02 · COMPARE Two postcodes · side by side
Comparison

The gap is easier to see side by side.

The UK's health gap becomes clearest when you compare two places. Some of the largest gaps are not between countries — but between communities a few hours apart.

Your postcode
vs
Another postcode
§ 03 · MAP A different map of Britain
National view

The UK looks different when you map healthy years, not just life expectancy.

Life expectancy tells us how long people live. Healthy life expectancy tells us how long they live well.

Stylised overview shown when the full UTLA choropleth isn't available; otherwise the live MapLibre choropleth replaces it on scroll. The full dataset covers 380 UK council records (151 English UTLAs, 164 English districts, 32 Scottish councils, 22 Welsh principal areas, 11 Northern Ireland districts).
§ 04 · DEPRIVATION The gap inside the country
Deprivation lens

The biggest healthy-life gap is inside the country.

In England, women in the most-deprived 10% of small areas can expect 20.3 fewer healthy years than women in the least-deprived 10%. The gap is wider than any local-authority comparison and has not closed in a decade. (ONS, latest figures published 15 April 2026.)

Healthy-life gap

Source: ONS — Healthy life expectancy by national area deprivation, England (15 April 2026) · Wales. England uses 10 IMD deciles; Wales uses 5 WIMD quintiles. Period: 2022–2024.

§ 05 · ANALYSIS The statistic most people have never seen
Context

Life expectancy is familiar. Healthy life expectancy is more revealing.

It estimates how long people can expect to live in good general health. Across the UK, the gap between areas is stark — in some places, people can expect nearly two decades fewer healthy years than people elsewhere.

FIG. 04·A

The healthy-life gap

Some UK areas have far fewer years in good health. Between the top and bottom postcodes in this dataset, the gap is larger than a generation.

Kensington · 68.1 healthy Blackpool · 52.3 healthy
FIG. 04·B

The postcode effect

Neighbouring areas can show very different outcomes. Two postcodes ten miles apart can differ by a decade in healthy life expectancy.

Westminster Islington Tower H. Kensington Kingston
FIG. 04·C

The lifestyle layer

Smoking, alcohol, obesity and inactivity are not evenly distributed across the country — and help explain part of the geographical pattern.

Smoking Obesity Inactive Alcohol
§ 06 · LIFESTYLE (SEPARATE · ILLUSTRATIVE) A different lens, not a multiplier
Separate view

What does the evidence on behaviour say?

This section is a separate, illustrative calculation — it does not modify the postcode figures above. It shows what published behaviour-based studies (smoking, alcohol, activity, BMI, diet) say about a pattern of habits, not about you.

§ 07 · METHODOLOGY Transparent by design
Sources

Built from official open data.

All calculations are transparent. Download the data, read the methodology, or follow every chart back to its source.

Primary data

Office for National Statistics

Life expectancy, healthy life expectancy, deaths registered by area.

Risk factors

OHID Fingertips

Smoking, obesity, physical activity, alcohol-related harm.

Geography

Postcodes.io

Open postcode-to-area lookup using UK public geography.

Licence

Open Government Licence

All source data is published under the OGL for public reuse and attribution.

Read the full story → Download data (JSON) Contact for press
§ 08 · PRESS For journalists
Press resources

The UK's hidden healthy-life gap — in a format you can file in an hour.

"Most people know that life expectancy varies across the UK. Far fewer realise the gap in healthy years is even more dramatic. Lifemap was built to make that hidden inequality visible in a way anyone can understand, starting with their own postcode."
— Founder, Lifemap

Lifemap is an independent public-data project mapping healthy life expectancy across the UK. Journalists may use screenshots, charts, and local-area extracts with attribution.

press@lifemap.org.uk · Founded 2026 · Built on ONS & OHID Fingertips open data.

Full press resources → Dataset (JSON) Embeddable charts