PEOPLE can expect to live longer in Wirral as new figures reveal life expectancy rates have risen slightly in the last two years.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) released the data for life expectancy rates across the UK between 2015 to 2017.

In a summary, the data found that women can expect to live longer than men however male life expectancy rates at birth increased by seven months since 2009 to 2011 while female rates increased by just four months.

It found that Wirral women at birth have a life expectancy of around 81.8 years between 2015 to 2017 while men had a life expectancy of 78.3 years for the same period.

The borough ranks at 295th for life expectancy which is a significant improvement considering it ranked as 306th between 2014 to 2016 for both genders.

Bucking the national trend, female healthy life expectancy (HLE) - the number of years that a newborn is expected to live in 'full health' - has slightly risen in Wirral to 61.1 years compared to just 60.2 years between 2015 to 2016.

However male HLE has dropped to 59.8 years between 2015 to 2017 compared to 61.3 years from 2014 to 2016.

ONS senior research officer Asim Butt said: "Overall, across the UK, females can expect to live a greater number of years in poor health than males, partly because female healthy life expectancy has slightly fallen while male healthy life expectancy has increased.

"At birth males in the UK can expect to live 16.5 years with a disability and females 20.9 years.

"However, it is important to note that periods of ill-health may not be experienced during the same point in a person’s life, and the majority of years lived with disability for most occur post-retirement age.

"For example, a person may be seriously unwell, but recover and remain healthy for a long period before becoming unwell again.”

Across all local authority areas in the UK, Camden has the highest female life expectancy with 86.5 years in 2015 to 2017 while Norwich saw the largest drop in rank for female life expectancy between 2015 to 2017.

The sharpest fall in life expectancy for men at birth was felt in Gloucester, Hartlepool, Norwich and Dundee, between 2012 to 2014 and 2015 to 2017, while Blackburn with Darwen and Southend-on-Sea ranked poorly for women.