Why more young men are dying in the North than South

New figures show almost 1,200 more men die
before the age of 44 in North each year

One-Minute Read

Research by the University of Manchester and Sky News shows that between 2014 and
2016, an annual average of 1,177 more men aged between 25 and 44
died in the North than in the South. Since 1965, a total of 1.2
million more people have died before the age of 75 in northern
England.

Although cancer and heart disease remain the biggest killers of
young men across the UK, the increased death rate and shortened
life expectancy in the North correlate with what Sky News calls “an
alarming rise in deaths caused by drugs, alcohol and suicide” in
the region since the mid-1990s, when life expectancies across the
country were fairly level.

The report suggests there is still a “deep division” between the
two halves of the country as a result of of social policies in the
1980s that facilitated the closure of “vast swaths” of industry in
the North.

The researchers also point to unequal funding for GPs as a
reason for the imbalance in death rates, arguing that
the “current formula awards more money to London and rural
areas – areas of least need – while more deprived areas in the
north receive less money, despite having the greatest needs”.