New statistics published in the British Medical Journal show that the north-south mortality difference has increased over the last 10 years, to its highest point since the seventies.
In 2008, if you lived in the North you would be 20% more likely to die before the age of 75.
Those behind the study, carried out at the University of Manchester, said that this is less to do with people not looking after themselves, and more to do with econmical reasons.
Lead researcher Ian Buchan said that this was because people in the South, regardless of income, had greater access to resources.
The government has said health inequalities were being addressed.
Medicinal herbalist Hannah Slyvester from Lincoln agrees that the health divide is probably due to “a lack of employment in Lincolnshire” and other areas.
Tom Revell reports.