‘Worrying – and shocking’: Life expectancy in Dundee drops

Local councillors have expressed grave concerns after a decrease in life expectancy for those living in Dundee.

A new report from Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership reveals life expectancy has dropped in the City of Discovery by almost two whole years for men and by around 18 months for women.

Dundee currently has the second lowest life expectancy in Scotland, with those in its most deprived areas living about ten years less than their counterparts in the most affluent areas.

For men life expectancy has dropped from 75.6 years to 73.5, where as for woman it’s dropped from  80.06 to 78.5 years.

Councillors raised the alarm at a meeting of the city governance committee on Monday, branding the downward trend as “shocking”.

Scottish Labour’s Kevin Keenan, who represents Strathmartine, said: “Life expectancy is something that has been extremely low in Dundee for a number of years and for it to be moving in the wrong direction really concerns me.

“It’s almost like we should be lobbying to reduce the pension age so that people have a good few years of reasonable quality of life before they pass.”

Lib Dem councillor Craig Duncan also voiced his concerns over the new figures.

He said: “We’ve got the second lowest life expectancy in Scotland but worse than that life expectancy is actually decreasing by two whole years for males and 18 months for females.

“It’s obviously a step in the wrong direction, very concerning indeed.

“This is worrying…actually in all honesty it’s shocking.”

What’s being done?

Diane McCulloch, chief social work officer for the Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership, stressed the health body is working to tackle the issue.

She said: “We’re looking from our position to try and tackle and support it from every angle that we can.

“Whether that’s in communities, whether it’s in the delivery of services, or whether it’s specialising in looking at those targeted services where we know that peoples life expectancy can be quite significantly impaired.”

Though Dundee had 38 drug deaths in 2022, the lowest figure recorded since 2016, drug usage is still rife with the city being Scotland’s fourth most prevalent area for drug use.

She said: “Obviously we are doing a huge amount of work in relation to our drug and alcohol services to make sure that we are responding to people as crisis appears”

However, council leader John Alexander stressed the life expectancy decline is not unique to Dundee.

He said: “My understanding is across the UK, just to be very clear on that as well as other western countries such as the US, there has been a decline in the life expectancy rate particularly in the post-Covid years.

“I wouldn’t want anybody to go away or there be a suggestion from this committee that somehow Dundee is an outlier in that respect.”