Life expectancy is perhaps the surest sign of a country’s welfare, which makes it all the more worrying that Scotland’s is going down. Figures out today show that when it comes to life expectancy, Scotland is no longer near the bottom range of western European countries and has instead joined the ranks of the post-Soviet states. Given Scotland’s level of state spending (amongst the highest in the world) this presents a conundrum. What’s going wrong?
A boy born in Scotland today will live to 76.6 years on average, a girl just under 81. That’s a fall of some 11 weeks for men and almost 8 for women since last year. It’s the second year in a row the figure has fallen, bucking international trends. Scotland continues to have the lowest life expectancy in the UK and the gap with the other nations is widening.
This is mainly a sign of deprivation, and what has been
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