Life expectancy at older ages in England as a whole is now the highest on record for all the age and sex groups studied, Public Health England says, though it fell in some regional areas.

The only exception is for women aged 85, for whom it is the same as it was in 2011, a report released this week concluded.

This builds on previous published research from February last year.

The findings came as Public Health England (PHE) added the latest available data for England for 2014 and further statistical analysis.

Professor John Newton, chief knowledge officer at PHE, said: “This latest picture shows that the overall upward trend in life expectancy at all older ages continues. Life expectancy at older ages in England is now the highest on record for all the age and sex groups studied, except for females aged 85, for whom it is the same as it was in 2011.

“The report shows however, that despite this overall picture of improvement, calculated life expectancy for older people in some parts of the country did not increase or fell.

“At English local authority level there is a good deal of variation in the trend in life expectancy at older age for which there is no apparent explanation.”

One quarter of local authorities showed a decrease in life expectancy at age 65. But the majority showed an increase or no change.

A larger number of local authorities showed a decrease in life expectancy at age 85.

At the level of regions, life expectancy at age 85 is still lower than it was in 2011 in some parts of the country, although in all regions it increased or remained stable in 2014 compared with 2013.

Professor Newton said: “Some variation in the figures for regions and individual local authorities is to be expected for statistical reasons and that may explain at least in part why the national trend is not apparent in all areas of the country.

“The cause or causes of the year to year changes in life expectancy at older ages nationally and locally is not yet clear but these trends certainly continue to require further investigation. PHE has formed an advisory group with external experts to help inform this work and we are very grateful to them for their helpful advice on our approach to these analyses.

The report also added that death rates in England have been falling steadily in recent decades especially in older age groups.

One consequence of this trend is that in 2014, 55 per cent of all deaths in England occurred in people over the age of 80 years, the publication stated.