Girls born in the United Kingdom have SECOND lowest life expectancy in Europe

Young people across Europe may die at an earlier age than their grandparents if the region fails to curb smoking, drinking and obesity, the World Health Organisation has warned.

Average life expectancy for men and women ranges from 71 in Belarus, Moldova and Russiato 82 for countries like France, Italy and Spainaccording to the latest figures from 2011.

The report praised countries for cutting deaths from cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (which include heart attacks and stroke).

As stated by WHO’s research and statistics, “16% of all deaths in adults over 30 in the WHO European Region were due to tobacco.”. But the organization said much more could be done to reduce major risk factors, addressing smoking and drinking habits.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age United Kingdom, said: “It is deeply concerning that the United Kingdom is lagging behind nearly all of the most developed nations in Europe in terms of average life expectancy for women”.

Life expectancy in Malta in 2011 was 79 years for men and 83 years for women.

The first study of its kind for three years, the report covers 39 countries including European Union member states as well as former Soviet republics.

These countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

Obesity is increasing, with 59 percent of Europe’s population either overweight or obese, ranking only slightly behind the Americas, which have the highest rates in the world.

Overweight is defined, in the report, as people having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or above (with obesity, the threshold is a BMI of 30 or over.) Coupled with the flab, the associate report notes that smoking rates in Europe are among the highest in world. But there is a very real risk that these gains will be lost if smoking and alcohol consumption continue at the current rate.

The report said these figures were “alarmingly high“. However the reports stress the consequences of gaps in immunity across the population, “still account for ongoing endemic transmission and have led to a number of outbreaks of measles and rubella in recent years.”.

Stein added that there were also “unacceptable” health inequalities to tackle. Finland has the lowest rate, at around two per 1,000, while Kyrgyzstan has around 22.

Most of the progress in the region since 2012 resulted from “improvements in countries with the highest premature mortality”, the United Nations agency’s report said. “But the differences are still there and some of them are extreme”, Stein said.

Of people dying in motor vehicle traffic accidents in the region, 75% are men and more than half are aged between 15-44 years.