Children growing up in the deprived suburbs of Glasgow have a lower life expectancy than those born in India, the World Health Organisation has found.

Researchers for the United Nation's public health arm made the startling discovery as part of a three-year investigation into what causes the huge variations in ill health and life expectancy around the world.

They concluded that social factors, not genetics, were to blame, and accused governments of “killing people on a grand scale” in pursuing policies that caused social injustice and widened the gap between rich and poor.

According to the WHO report, the average life expectancy in Britain is 77, but there are wide variations across the country.

A boy born in the Glasgow suburb of Calton would expect to live on average to 54 - 28 years less than a boy from the nearby affluent village of Lenzie. The same boy from Calton would also have a shorter life than a child born in India, where the average life expectancy is 62 years and where 80 per cent of the population lives on less than £1 a day.

The average life expectancy in the wealthy North London suburb of Hampstead is 11 years longer than in nearby St Pancras - equivalent to a journey of five stops on the London Underground.

The report, drawn up by experts on the WHO's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, found that in almost all countries poor socioeconomic circumstances equated to poor health.

A girl from the African country of Lesotho is, on average, likely to live to be 42 years old, less than half the expected lifespan of a girl from Japan (86 years). In Sweden, the risk of a woman dying during pregnancy and childbirth is one in 17,400, but in Afghanistan it is one in eight.

The differences were so marked that genetics and biology could not begin to explain them, the researchers said. “[The] toxic combination of bad policies, economics and politics is, in large measure, responsible for the fact that a majority of people in the world do not enjoy the good health that is biologically possible. Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale.”

The researchers called on governments around the world to consider what impact all of their policies - including taxes, housing and transport - had on health, adding that it was entirely possible to reduce health inequality within a relatively short period of time. But without action, they said, injustice and inequality would only increase.

Sir Michael Marmot, chairman of the commission and professor of public health at Imperial College London, said: “There are examples where health inequalities have narrowed but in too many cases we have seen a widening. But that means the magnitude of inequalities is flexible - if the gap can widen, it can get narrower.”

In the UK, there had been noticeable improvements in people's health over the last eight years, he said, but these had not been as significant for the worst-off as for the best-off.

“The key message of our report is that the circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work and age are the fundamental drivers of health, and health inequity.

“A more effective way of increasing life expectancy and improving health would be for every government policy and programme to be assessed for its impact on health and health equity; to make health and health equity a marker for government performance.”

The researchers highlighted education, affordable housing, management of access to unhealthy foods and social security protection as key elements. They urged governments to reduce work-related stress and to ensure that workers were given a living wage and had a healthy work-life balance.

Ann Keen, Labour's Health Minister, said that the recent review of health services by Lord Darzi had identified the reduction of health inequalities as a key priority.

“The UK is at the forefront of tackling health inequalities, but the challenge of reducing the gap in life expectancy is still very much an issue,” Ms Keen said.

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: “The WHO makes it clear that while healthcare has improved, it is the rich who are reaping the benefits. It is shocking and disgraceful that this contrast can exist in modern Britain.”

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