LONGEVITY is a great indicator of a region's overall health. Life expectancy is a combination of factors from genetics to the likelihood of your country going to war.

But among the biggest influences affecting life expectancy are the choices we make ourselves, and these are directly influenced by where we live and the community we live in.

Smoking and binge drinking, for example, have a massive downward affect on the amount of years we can expect to live, while regular exercise and a healthy diet can raise that figure.

In Hampshire, on the whole, life expectancy is well above the national average.

A recent survey by The Chartered Society of Physiotherapists found Winchester to have the ninth highest life-expectancy for men of anywhere in the country, with the average man in the city living to 79.4 years.

But the relationship between a community and the longevity of its residents was also revealed - a finding backed up by the new Healthy Community Profiles reports, which The Daily Echo has been highlighting this week.

Accordingly, while the majority of affluent Hampshire scored well, Southampton fared relatively badly with life expectancy figures for men and women below both the regional and national averages.

So what are the important factors in determining how long we live and why we die?

One of those at the forefront of gauging life-expectancy in Hampshire and the reasons behind it, is Dr Bob Coates, Director of Health for the Mid-Hampshire Primary Care Trust.

He said: "When it comes to life expectancy there is a staggering trend you can see - namely how consistently the life expectancy for both men and women is rising."

In 1982 the life expectancy figures for Winchester were 78.8 years for women and 73.8 years for men.

Life expectancy Move things on 22 years and by 2004 those figures had risen to 82.3 years for women and 79.4 years for men - an average rise of more than five per cent.

Dr Coates said: "The striking thing here is that it is relentlessly improving.

"In Winchester we are almost as high as we can be in terms of the current national average - and yet still it is improving.

"What is shows is that people have been underestimating the length people can live for. What we are learning now is that people can easily live to 100, and perhaps in this generation, we could see people living to 110 or even 120 quite regularly."

But such life spans are only likely if not only the person but the community they live in is healthy and happy.

Scourge of smoking A good example of this is shown in the figures for smoking-related deaths and the correlation between the number of smokers and the wealth of the area.

Winchester, the most wealthy of the regions covered by The Daily Echo, has the lowest figures for smoking-related deaths at 459 in the two years up to 2004 and an average of 87.4 people dying as a result of smoking per 100,000 people. It also has a relatively low percentage of smokers at about 18 per cent of the population.

In Southampton, the least affluent area in the region, some 32 per cent of the population smoke, and accordingly there were 1,128 smoking-related deaths up to 2004, with 143.1 people per 100,000, on average, dying.

Dr Coates, said: "Smoking is still the scourge of the health of people today, but bear in mind that in the 1920s about 80 per cent of people smoked.

"Today we are seeing the benefits of the reduction in smoking in the last 15 years and we are seeing it in longevity figures.

"But there are other factors that are almost as significant. In Winchester we have the sort of environment that is incredibly conducive to good health, with a wealthier, working population.

"Education can also not be overlooked as a factor in longevity, and we can see this not just in Winchester or even the UK, but actually worldwide.

"A revolution in nutrition is also of great significance, but we still have a long way to go. Getting five portions of fruit and veg into people every day is proving to be incredibly hard.

"Also we need to get people more physically active and it's surprising how we have engineered so much exercise out of our daily routines - from washing clothes to dishwashers and lifts to remote controls.

"But, the real thing that drives life expectancy upwards, is driving early deaths downwards, because they really drive the numbers down - particularly in children.

"All these things, though, can relate to the community people live in. What we have got to do is to create environments where we can reduce the pressures and stresses on individuals so they feel more in control of their lives."

Snapshot of life The importance of this is shown in a snapshot of Winchester's longevity figures.

Dr Coates, said: "You can see in the figures for Winchester the discrepancy between communities, because there is a difference of 6.4-years in average life expectancy between the better off and the worst off communities just in that city alone."

"Your health is often taken for granted, but it is influenced by many, many factors, and those factors run throughout your life.

"Improving those determining factors on your life can make a real difference to your overall health and life expectancy.

"If there's one message to get across then it's that it is never too late to make changes, particularly in those factors which are seen as big influences on life expectancy such as giving up smoking, taking up exercise and trying to eat healthily."