Britons have 68.6 years of healthy life, whereas people in top-ranked country, Spain, have 70.9 years of healthy life on average.

BBC: UK 'fares badly in European health league table'

It is the first time that statistics for healthy years of life have been collated.

BBC: Northerners suffer more ill health

The WHO estimates that major depression shortens healthy active life by four years.

BBC: Aids Africa's top killer

They are worst off in the North West, where the average length of a healthy life is only 64.4 years, and overall life expectancy is 73.4 years.

BBC: Northerners suffer more ill health

Most likely to break the bank: a horse (of course, of course), with lifetime costs reaching into the hundreds of thousands for an equine that is stable-boarded, relatively healthy and lives a full life of about 30 years.

FORBES

Healthy life expectancy (HLE) increased by more than two years in the period 2008-10 compared with 2005-07.

BBC: Number of workless households falls again, says ONS

She is fit and healthy for the first time in years, has a settled personal life after enormous turmoil in the past, and is approaching what should be her technical peak.

BBC: SPORT | Athletics | Going for Gold: Ashia Hansen