Closing the women's health gap: The United Kingdom's £36 billion opportunity
New analysis from the McKinsey Health Institute, conducted with the World Economic Forum, finds that closing gaps in women's health outcomes could add approximately £36 billion annually to UK GDP by 2040, a contribution on the scale of the UK's entire life sciences sector.
The economic case rests on workforce dynamics. Since the pandemic, the UK has been the only G7 economy where the workforce remains smaller than before 2020, driven substantially by long-term sickness. Women's sickness absence rate stands at 2.5 percent, compared with 1.6 percent for men. Improving health outcomes for women is estimated to translate into gains through four channels: fewer early deaths, fewer health conditions limiting work, expanded labor force participation, and higher day-to-day productivity among those already employed.
The underlying health burden is concentrated in a relatively small set of conditions, several of which are not traditionally categorized as women-specific: premenstrual syndrome, depressive disorders, migraine, and other conditions linked to hormonal signaling account for more than £11 billion of the total GDP opportunity alone.
The report models this alongside broader UK productivity challenges, output per hour has grown just 0.6 percent annually since 2007, down from 2.2 percent before the financial crisis, positioning improved health outcomes as one lever, among others such as management systems and technology adoption, for addressing the UK's wider productivity gap.
