White people in Britain are dying at higher rates than ethnic minorities because of their drinking and smoking habits.

Analysis from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) of mortality rates by ethnicity across towns, cities and villages found that in almost all cases white Britons were dying in higher numbers, despite on average being more affluent.

The only exception can be found among people from Bangladeshi backgrounds in smaller towns and cities who die at slightly higher rates than white Britons.

In London, for example, the ONS’s analysis suggested that 963 white Britons out of a group of 100,000 would die in a year.

In a group of 100,000 people of Pakistani heritage, who had the secondest highest mortality rate, 834 would die.

For those of Chinese ethnicity, 612 out of 100,000 on average die in a year – more than a third fewer than white Britons.

The data, which covers the period March 2021 to May 2023, controls for differences in age and the absolute number of people in each ethnic group, meaning mortality was not higher simply because there are more white Britons in the UK.

Experts said the disparity can at least in part be blamed on white Britons’ lifestyles, with smoking and drinking far more common among this group than among people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Veena Raleigh, an epidemiologist and senior fellow at the King’s Fund, told The Telegraph: “Broadly speaking we find that ethnic minority groups in the UK have lower mortality and therefore higher life expectancy than than the white British population.

“They have lower rates of smoking and alcohol consumption, so they have slightly better lifestyles.”

Ms Raleigh said this was likely the result of a “mixture of cultural and religious influences”.

She said: “For smoking, the rates are much lower in ethnic minority women, and in particular South Asian groups. So there is definitely a strong cultural factor there and also [in relation to] alcohol consumption.”

Ms Raleigh noted that ethnic minorities typically also lived longer in other countries. One is what is known as the “healthy migrant effect”.

She said: “People who migrate, and very often they’re migrating for economic reasons, they tend to be more healthy and fit.”

Over time these differences fade, however. Immigrants and descendants of immigrants eventually adopt lifestyles similar to white Britons.

Ms Raleigh said: “This is apparent in second generation, UK-born ethnic minority groups. People change their lifestyles over time. They may take up more smoking and so on.”

The ONS analysis confirms the resumption of a pattern going back many years that was disrupted during Covid when ethnic minorities died at a greater rate than white Britons.

Ms Raleigh said: “The way you can unpick the mortality data is the white British tend to have higher mortality from several leading causes of death like cancer and dementia whereas ethnic minorities have much lower rates of death or cancer and dementia.”

Separate research has also found that people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds die at higher rates from many individual conditions like diabetes, strokes and chronic kidney disease.