Why where you live matters more as you age
The International Longevity Centre (ILC) has just launched the UK Better Lives Index, a powerful new tool that sheds light on how geography shapes our chances of living long, healthy, and fulfilling lives. This Grey Matters post builds directly on the ILC’s findings, with full credit to their work.
At Boomer + beyond, we see this as an important moment: the Index reinforces something we hear time and again in our own research with older adults.
Place matters, and its impact only grows stronger as we age.
The postcode effect
The Index reveals stark inequalities across the UK. A child born in Richmond upon Thames can expect to live nine years longer than one born in Blackpool. That difference isn’t just a matter of a few statistics. It means the child in Richmond is more likely to go through life with better access to education, healthier environments, more employment opportunities, and ultimately, a longer life. The child in Blackpool, by contrast, faces a lifetime of compounded disadvantage before they’ve even had a chance to shape their own future.
Life expectancy at age 65 also varies significantly, with older adults in the best-performing areas living, on average, over two years longer than those in the lowest-ranked places. These aren’t small margins, they’re the difference between enjoying a full later life and being cut short. Crucially, the Index shows us that these variations are not accidents of biology, but results of place-based inequalities that accumulate across the life course.
It’s not just about longevity. Child poverty rates range from 12% in the best areas to over 40% in Oldham, Pendle, and Bradford. Household disposable income can differ by more than £10,000 between top and bottom regions. And avoidable mortality (deaths that should not happen with timely health interventions) is almost twice as high in the worst-performing places. In short, the postcode lottery is alive and well, and it leaves deep marks on people’s lives.
Inequality doesn’t fade with age
One of the most important contributions of the ILC’s Index is that it highlights how inequalities don’t narrow over time. Instead, they often widen. For older adults, the combination of poorer health, weaker financial security, and limited work opportunities means disadvantage becomes harder to escape.
The Index shows that economic inactivity among 50-64 year-olds averages 34.5% in the lowest-ranked areas, 13 percentage points higher than in the top-performing ones. Behind those numbers are people leaving the workforce earlier than they would like, often because of ill health, lack of opportunities, or caregiving responsibilities. For individuals, this can mean financial insecurity and a sense of lost purpose. For communities, it represents untapped potential.
Pensioner poverty also varies dramatically. Up to 39% of older adults in Tower Hamlets claim pension credit, compared to just 4% in Hart, Hampshire. This reflects not only income inequality but also the high cost of housing in some regions, particularly for renters in London. Housing tenure, employment history, and access to occupational pensions all interact to make later life more secure for some and more precarious for others.
These figures remind us that ageing is not experienced equally. For many people, where they live continues to shape their health, income, and opportunities well into their seventies and eighties. For those in disadvantaged areas, the cumulative effect of inequality can mean not only shorter lives but also longer periods of ill health and greater reliance on stretched social care services.
The missed opportunity
Amid the challenges, the Index also highlights untapped potential. If all local areas matched the employment rate of the best-performing regions for older workers, the economic output of 50-64 year-olds could increase by as much as 19%, equivalent to £109 billion. Even a more modest catch-up scenario would add £19 billion to the economy.
That’s not just an economic gain. For individuals, being able to work longer in good-quality jobs supports financial resilience, boosts wellbeing, and delays health decline. Work provides routine, purpose, social connection, and the resources to remain independent. For communities, older workers bring experience, mentorship, and economic activity that supports local businesses. And for the wider economy, longer working lives help meet labour market shortages while reducing pressure on pensions and benefits.
Yet the Index reminds us that opportunity is unevenly distributed. Digital and clean energy jobs, for example, are concentrated in top-ranked areas, while many of the lower-ranked places are anchored in foundational industries such as steel, construction, and logistics. These industries may not carry the glamour of frontier sectors, but they remain critical to local and national resilience. Ignoring them risks leaving large parts of the country behind.
Beyond diagnosis: a roadmap for action
The ILC makes clear that the Index is not just a measurement tool. It’s a call to action. From local government to employers, NHS systems to housing providers, the message is the same: tackling inequalities requires place-sensitive solutions.
For older adults, this means:
Health: ensuring that NHS neighbourhood hubs and preventative services are rolled out where the need is greatest, not just where delivery is easiest. The Index suggests more than 550,000 excess deaths between 2016 and 2021 were attributable to location inequality. Closing these gaps is one of the most urgent public health challenges we face.
Financial security: addressing regional variations in pensioner poverty, with a sharper focus on affordable, quality housing for older renters. Housing costs are a key driver of later life inequality and must be central to policy responses.
Work and opportunity: designing employment support that recognises the barriers facing older workers in regions with historically low economic activity. This means tackling ageism, providing reskilling opportunities, and improving access to flexible and part-time roles that allow older adults to stay in work for longer.
Community infrastructure: investing in transport, digital connectivity, and inclusive public spaces that enable participation and reduce isolation. Longevity is not just about adding years to life, but about ensuring those years are lived with dignity, connection, and purpose.
Industrial strategy alignment: ensuring that growth in frontier industries is not limited to already prosperous regions. By connecting lower-ranked areas into these opportunities, while supporting foundational industries, we can create more balanced economic development that benefits older adults everywhere.
A Grey Matters perspective
At Boomer + beyond, we believe the Better Lives Index is a wake-up call, but also a reminder of what’s possible. Every place has potential, and every individual deserves the chance to age well, regardless of postcode. If policymakers, businesses, and communities embrace the Index as a roadmap, we can build a society where longer lives are not just the preserve of a fortunate few, but a shared opportunity for all.
This is not about eliminating difference between places. Every community has its own character, history, and strengths. But it is about ensuring that those strengths are harnessed, and that disadvantage is not allowed to dictate the course of an individual’s later life. We cannot accept a system where some people are denied a decade of healthy life simply because of where they were born or where they grow old.
The challenge is significant, but so is the opportunity. The Index shows us where investment and innovation can make the biggest difference. It gives policymakers a tool for targeting resources. And it offers communities evidence to argue for change. Our role, collectively, is to ensure that evidence is turned into action.
All data and insights are taken from and credited to the ILC UK Better Lives Index report.
You can read the full report here: ILC – UK Better Lives Index.
source: ILC - UK Better lives index report, 2025