Geographies of the impact of retirement on health in the United Kingdom

This paper explores how the impact of retirement on self-assessed illness varies spatially across the UK. Curves of age-specific limiting long term illness rates reveal a 'retirement kink'-where the rise in illness rates with age slows or declines at retirement age indicating possible health improvement after retirement. The kink is negligible in the affluent South East and most prominent in the coalfield and former industrial districts. It is likely that the kink is attributable to hidden unemployment and health-related selective migration but additionally that in certain areas retirement is associated with improvements in self-assessed health.