People in more affluent areas of England are still living for longer than their counterparts in less well-off regions, new figures have suggested.
According to data from the Office for National Statistics, the life expectancy gap between the wealthiest consumers and the least affluent has increased further.
The research showed that between 2002 and 2005, and 2006 and 2009, men from the least deprived areas of England saw their life expectancy jump from 80 to 81.4.
In comparison, those in the poorest neighbourhoods saw life expectancies increase from 72.2 to only 73.3 during the same period.
And the trends were the same for women, with those from more affluent regions seeing life expectancies go up from 83.2 to 84.5, compared to those from the most deprived regions, where the figure increased from 77.9 to just 78.9.
Citing the potential factors behind these trends, the ONS indicated that the "inverse care law" could have come into play.
This "law" suggests that more advantaged people have a higher awareness of how they can make use of health programmes and the system.
It is thought many people living in
care homes up and down the country will be interested in the findings from the ONS.
