Men’s charity Movember’s report shows the the South Hams scores well for male life expectency.

The South West Devon constituency comes out third in the UK with only 253 people per 100,000 dying before the age of 75.

Totnes (now South Devon) was next in Devon with 281 per 100,000 dying young.

Life expectency is lower in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport (554), Torbay (544) and Plymouth Moor View (489).

Nationwide the gap between male and female life expectancy in the UK has begun to widen again, after narrowing for almost four decades.

The impact of COVID-19 has caused a fall in male life expectancy for the first time in 40 years.

A baby boy born between 2018 and 2020 is expected to live until he is 79 years old, with girls likely to live for 82.9 years.

Movember CEO Michelle Terry said: “Women outlive men everywhere in the world.

“However, in the UK, the gender gap had been gradually narrowing since the 1980s until 2017-2019, when it began to widen again.

“We know that men have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 which is why male life expectancy has fallen back to levels not seen since 2012-2014. But, in addition to this, there are other reasons that men’s health remains unnecessarily poor and some of the causes of the disparity between men and women’s life expectancies are preventable.”

The charity, which focuses on raising funds and awareness for mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer, is urging men to take control of their health.