Facts & Figures

• 164 million days lost to the UK economy during 2005 through ill health
• costing the UK economy £13bn a year
• the most significant causes of absence, for manual and non-manual workers, are back pain and musculo-skeletal injuries
• smoking causes half of all premature deaths
• excessive alcohol consumption causes 33,000 premature deaths a year
• 1 in 2 adults are overweight and 1 in 5 are obese
• obese men are 33% more likely to die of cancer
• obese women are at 50% greater risk of getting breast cancer
• 1 in 4 of us die prematurely of cancer and 2 in 4 of heart disease but these diseases are 75% lifestyle related and therefore preventable
• half a million people each year experience stress at a level that will make them ill
• a diet rich in saturated fats and processed foods, smoking, stress, alcohol and lack of exercise are
  all contributory factors to these statistics

 2007 stats

• average level of employee absence is now 3.7% of working time lost - up from 3.5% in previous year
• average cost of employee absence per employee pa £659 - up from £598 in previous year
• 8.4 days lost per employee pa - an increase from 8% in previous year
• absence levels for public services employees 4.5% (10.3 days) pa - up from 4.3%
• absence levels for private sector employees 3.2% (7.2 days) pa - up from 3%
• absence levels for non-profit sector employees 4.2% (9.6 days) pa - up from 3.6%
• absence levels for manufacturing and production employees 3.3% (7.6 days) pa - down from 3.5%
• on average employer respondents believe approx 16% of absence is not genuine
• 50% of respondents identify Statutory Sick Pay as a significant or very significant cost to employer
• approx 40% of respondents rate their strategy on employee well-being as poor

based on 819 UK-based HR responses, of 1.6m employees: 
average size of organisation - public sector 5,606 employees; private sector 1,412;
non-profit 403; manufacturing and production 531

References:

CIPD - Eighth National Survey of Absence (2007)
CBI - Confederation of British Industry
ONS - Office of National Statistics
WHO - World Health Organisation
Cancer Research UK
HSE - Managing sickness absence