Death rates among adults aged 25 to 49 were 42% higher in the North of England than in the South in 2024, compared with 13% higher in 1981, according to a study published in The Lancet Public Health.

The research, led by the University of Liverpool, the University of Manchester and Health Equity North, analysed national death registrations and population estimates from 1981 to 2024, the University of Manchester said. The comparisons take account of differences in age and sex between the populations. As reported by BBC News, the study divided England into two roughly equal halves along a line from the Wash to the Severn Estuary, with Greater Manchester in the North.

Death rates fell overall during the four decades studied, but the relative gap between North and South among 25 to 49-year-olds more than tripled. The widening began well before Covid-19, and there was no evidence of the gap narrowing during 2020 to 2024 in any of the age or sex groups studied, the university said. Across everyone under 75, death rates were 26% higher in the North in 2024.

The gap grew fastest among women. In the 1980s, northern women in their late twenties and thirties had no excess mortality compared with the South, but today every five-year band of women aged 25 to 49 shows a 35% to 60% excess, according to the researchers.

The study looked at deaths from all causes combined and did not examine the specific causes of the divide, and the researchers plan further analysis. The BBC reported that previous research by the same group found strong links with deprivation.

Professor Iain Buchan, of the University of Liverpool, told the BBC the figures meant more than 3,000 people a year in the North were dying before their time. Professor Evangelos Kontopantelis, of the University of Manchester, said the study “paints a picture of persistent regional inequalities”. The authors called for sustained action by central government and regional authorities, including targeting funding at areas of high deprivation.

The BBC also spoke to staff at Hollinwood Medical Practice in Oldham, part of the Hope Citadel network of GP surgeries, which provides clothes, bedding and toiletries to patients in need and refers people to a nearby food bank. Care worker Lisa Chattington told the BBC: “Poverty is the root of everything.”

The Department of Health and Social Care said a person's postcode “should never dictate how long they live”, and pointed to new Neighbourhood Health Centres in the areas that need them most.

Sources: The Lancet Public Health, The north–south divide in English mortality, 1981–2024; University of Manchester press release; BBC News, 21 October 2026. This article was produced with the help of AI tools and checked by an editor against the sources above.