Life expectancy by ethnic group in England

The disproportionate effect of covid-19 on ethnic minority populations led to a welcome and overdue focus on ethnic disparities in health.1 Their higher covid-19 mortality was widely viewed as having exacerbated pre-existing health inequalities, particularly for Black and South Asian people.12 Although previous evidence had shown a more mixed pattern of ethnic differences in health outcomes,34 our knowledge and understanding have been limited by a lack of nationally representative data on mortality by ethnic group. The first Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates of life expectancy and cause-specific mortality by ethnicity based on census data are therefore timely. [Opening parapgraph]