BMJ  2005;331:1409 (10 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7529.1409-b

Letter

Inequalities and Christmas Yet to Come

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Editor—On 10 November National Statistics released new life expectancy figures by area and announced that "Inequalities in life expectancy persist across the UK."

"Persist" was an odd word to use. In Kensington and Chelsea, where it was already highest, it rose by exactly one year for both men and women (from 79.8 to 80.8 years and 84.8 to 85.8 years, respectively). In contrast, in Glasgow where it was lowest a year ago, life expectancy remained static at 76.4 years for women, and rose just slightly for men from 69.1 to 69.3 years. The range in life expectancy between the extreme highest and lowest areas thus increased from 8.4 to 9.4 years for women, and from 10.7 years to 11.5 years for men.

For men and women combined, the life expectancy gap between the worst and best off districts of the UK now exceeds 10 years for the first time since . . . [Full text of this article]

University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN Daniel.dorling@shef.ac.uk

Research Unit In Health, Behaviour and Change, University of Edinburgh Medical School, Edinburgh EH8 9AG

School of City and Regional Planning, Glamorgan Building, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3WA

Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR

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