Life expectancy datasets
Measures
Each measure is one kind of value you can request, using its id.
| Measure | Unit | Combining areas |
|---|---|---|
Male life expectancy at birthlife-expectancy-male | years | Not combined |
Female life expectancy at birthlife-expectancy-female | years | Not combined |
“Adds up” means you can total it over areas or convert it to other areas. See Measures and periods for why some can't be combined.
Areas and years
Request each of these with its geography and code year as geography and boundaryYear.
| Areas | Code year | Periods | Covers | Records |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local authorities | 2025 | 2001–2003 to 2022–2024 | UK | 359 |
Things to know
- Each period is a three-year period life expectancy, not a forecast for anyone born in it.
- On the publisher's May 2025 local-authority codes, to which ONS restates the whole series across all four nations. The English counties the workbook also lists overlap their districts and are not served.
- The life expectancy of a combined population is not an average of its areas' life expectancies, weighted or not. It has to be recalculated from deaths and population by age, which this source does not publish.
Corrections and improvements
These reviewed changes apply to what the API serves for this data. The publisher's source files are not changed; when a code correction applies, the served record retains the publisher's code as sourceAreaCode.
| Change | What the API serves | Applies when |
|---|---|---|
| Opt-in canonical measure-unit presentation | On the explicit canonical request, each numeric value and any publisher-supplied interval bound is multiplied by the measure's declared scale; the response names the resulting unit and calculation. | GET /v1/data/{measure-id}?units=canonical |
curl "https://api.ukdataatlas.com/v1/corrections?measure=life-expectancy-male"/correctionsList reviewed correctionsRequest it
Get the first page of life-expectancy-male for local authorities:
curl "https://api.ukdataatlas.com/v1/data/life-expectancy-male?period=2022-2024&geography=localAuthority&boundaryYear=2025&limit=5"Read the measure's full definition, including every period it's published for:
curl "https://api.ukdataatlas.com/v1/measures/life-expectancy-male"/data/{measure-id}Get observationsget/data/{measure-id}/seriesGet a time seriesSource and licence
| Dataset | Publisher | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| Life Expectancy Series | Office for National Statistics | Open Government Licence v3.0 |
Using this data in something you publish? Get attribution text with measure=life-expectancy-male returns the credit line to include.
Downloads
Download complete publisher-observation files instead of paging through the API. Each file has a stable hash and covers one measure, period set and source geography. Any reviewed served code correction is documented and retains its publisher code on the affected record. The source and licence information above applies to these files too; preserve the attribution and note any cleaning or reformatting when you redistribute one.