VitaSegments

It’s not only current longevity that differs between different socio-economic groups. There are now many sources of evidence showing that the rate at which longevity is changing is different for different socio-economic groups.

Club Vita’s data demonstrates a ten-year difference in UK current life expectancies between different types of retiree. However, the data also shows differential trends in improvements in life expectancy for different groups of people. In the UK, Club Vita has developed a longevity trend segmentation, called VitaSegments, to enable these differential trends to be tracked over time. The segmentation is based on relative deprivation (as captured using post-code) and, for men, pension amount. The three groups (for men), which are of broadly equal size, are termed ‘comfortable’ (those with the highest pensions and living in the least deprived areas), ‘making-do’ and ‘hard pressed’ (those with the lowest pensions and living in the most deprived areas). For women, the segmentation is only based on post-code and the making-do and comfortable groups have been combined into a single group.