Females in North Ayrshire have the lowest healthy life expectancy in the whole of Scotland.

Figures published on Monday (January 25) by the National Records of Scotland showed that females living in the region can expect to live in good health for 56.3 years.

In comparison, Orkney had the highest healthy life expectancy of all local authorities for females at 75.1 years.

Males living in North Ayrshire can expect to stay in a healthy state for 58.5 years only 3.9 years more than the lowest rate which is Glasgow at 54.6 years.

The highest expectancy rate for males in Scotland was in East Dunbartonshire at 69.8 years.

Healthy living expectancy is an estimate of how many years an individual can expect to stay healthy for based on their location and is different from life expectancy which is how many years someone is expected to live regardless of health.

Across Scotland, healthy life expectancy has dropped in the past year with the average healthy life expectancy at birth for males now at 61.7 years and 61.9 years for females.

Julie Ramsay, head of vital events statistics at NRS, said: “Over the last decade healthy life expectancy has increased for males and decreased for females.  However, both males and females experienced a decrease  in healthy life expectancy over the latest year. 

“The decrease in healthy life expectancy coincides with a stalling of growth in life expectancy in recent years, and has resulted in a lower proportion of life being spent in good health with 79.9 per cent for males and 76.3 per cent for females.”