White people in Britain are dying at higher rates than ethnic minorities because of their drinking and smoking habits.
Analysis from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) of mortality rates by ethnicity across towns, cities and villages found that in almost all cases white Britons were dying in higher numbers, despite on average being more affluent.
The only exception can be found among people from Bangladeshi backgrounds in smaller towns and cities who die at slightly higher rates than white Britons.
In London, for example, the ONS’s analysis suggested that 963 white Britons out of a group of 100,000 would die in a year.
In a group of 100,000 people of Pakistani heritage, who had the secondest highest mortality rate, 834 would die.
For those of Chinese ethnicity, 612 out of 100,000 on average die in a year – more than a third fewer than white Britons.
The data, which covers the period March 2021 to May 2023, controls for differences in age and the absolute number of people in each ethnic group, meaning mortality was not higher simply because there are more white Britons in the UK.
Experts said the disparity can at least in part be blamed on white Britons’ lifestyles, with smoking and drinking far more common among this group than among people from ethnic minority backgrounds.