Health facts

Health and social care facts

07/01/2007

• 13 per cent of men and 5 per cent of women in London admit to �binge� drinking; this is the lowest level of binge drinking of any region in England, apart from the south east (1)
  
  
• the conception rate for girls aged 15 to 17 was 4.5 per cent in London in 2005, and 5.3 per cent in inner London, above the England average of 4.1 per cent. (2)
  
  
• the total number of �problematic drug users� in London is estimated to be between 71,400 and 81,300 (3)
  
  
• London councils support more than 30,400 residents in local authority, voluntary and private residential care homes; the majority (60 per cent) live in outer London (4)
  
  
• boys born in London in 2005 have a life expectancy of 76.9 years, while girls can expect to live until they are 81.4 years old. Both these figures are slightly above the UK average of 76.6 and 80.9 years respectively (5)
  
  
• life expectancy varies considerably within short distances in London; travelling east from Westminster to Canning Town for example, each stop on the Jubilee Line correlates to approximately one year�s reduction in life expectancy (6)
  
  
• London�s ambulance service responds to an average of almost 2,600 emergency and urgent incidents a day (7)
  
  
• at 22 per cent, London has the lowest proportion of adult smokers of any region in England. The English region with the highest proportion is the north west, where 29 per cent of adults smoke (8)