Moray residents live 5 years longer than city dwellers

FOLK in Scotland's rural communities such as Moray can expect to live as much as five years longer than city dwellers.

That's according to figures released today by the National Records of Scotland.

These suggest a boy newly born in Moray today will live for an average of 78.97 years, while a girl is set to live for an average 81.68 years.

That's significantly higher than the life expectancy for males and females in Glasgow.

There, the projected average is just 73.36 years for boys and 78.66 years for girls.

The contrast between country and city life is even higher the more remote you go.

In Shetland the average lifespans are 79.48 years and 83.37, while in Orkney they are put at 79.09 and 82.07.

However the matter of where you live is far less important then the question of when.

So, during the 1860s, Scottish men lived for an average of only 40.30 years, while woman lived for 43.90 years.

That era witnessed distressingly high levels of infant mortality – a fact demonstrated by the large jump recorded if a child managed to survive its 12 months.

When that factor is taken into account, men and women during the 1860s lived for an average of 45.60 and 47.50 years respectively.

Life expectancy improved steadily across Scotland over the intervening decades, finally topping 70 for women in 1960, and for men in 1990.

Things reached a peak for both sexes in the period 2017-2019, before falling back slightly again.

The figures have since decreased by three weeks for males and 5.7 weeks for females.