A NEW way of calculating life expectancy has underlined the massive North-South health divide.

For the first time, the Office for National Statistics has calculated how many years the average person endures poor health during their lives.

Where people live in England has a massive bearing on "healthy life expectancy".

In many cases, people in the affluent South enjoy an extra decade of good quality life.

Based on statistics collected during the 1990s, the figures showed that people living in East Surrey were likely to stay healthy for nearly ten years longer than those living in Sunderland.

People living in Suffolk can expect to live without serious illness for nearly nine years more than someone in Teesside.

Residents in East Surrey can expect to live until they are almost 73 before suffering serious illness or disability, while their counterparts on Wearside can expect to develop serious health problems after they reach their 63rd birthday.

The worst off in terms of healthy living expectancy live in Manchester, Barnsley and Liverpool.

Oxfordshire, Devon and Wiltshire are among the most healthy areas.

Sunderland (fifth) and Teesside (eighth) feature in the ten least healthy districts of England.

Other North-East districts also fare badly in terms of years of poor health. They include Gateshead and South Tyneside (11.6 years), Newcastle and North Tyneside (11.5), County Durham (11.1) and North Yorkshire (9.2).

The average life expectancy for England is now 77.5 years, with an average of 68.3 years of good health.