Down by the sea: poverty brings Blackpool life expectancy to UK low

Resort town struggles with squalid housing, poor nutrition for children and now, statistics show, earlier deaths

It is a league table that no one wants to top. For the first time in 20 years, Blackpool, a once-glamorous seaside resort, this week overtook Glasgow to have the lowest average male life expectancy in the UK.

Men born in Blackpool will now live until just after their 73rd birthday on average, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) study, six years less than the average in the rest of England.

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