Map reveals unhealthiest places to live in England – where does your area rank?

BLACKPOOL has been crowned the unhealthiest place to live in England for the fifth year in a row.

The seaside resort town scored the worst of all 307 local authorities in the country in a new well-being index by the Office for National Statistics.

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Blackpool, Lancashire, received an overall mark of 76.5 based on 56 factors such as cancer rates, mental health and access to green spaces.

This was closely followed by Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire, which scored 77.5.

Liverpool fared slightly better with 79.9, and Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, clocked 80.2.

At the other end of the scale, people in Harrogate, also in North Yorkshire, are the healthiest in England (124.9).

Those in Rutland, East Midlands (124.6) are next in line, followed by Elmbridge (124.1) and Waverley (123.1), both in Surrey.

An interactive tool allows you to look up the health score in your local area.

In 2015, the ONS allocated all boroughs in England a baseline ‘health score’ of 100.

Since then, it has measured whether health has improved or worsened every year.

A higher number always means better health and a lower number means worse health. 

Analysis is made up of measures in different categories, called domains and subdomains.

These measures include mental and physical health, (such as feelings of anxiety and conditions such as diabetes), local unemployment, road safety, and behaviours like healthy eating.

And they are grouped into three categories – healthy people, healthy lives and healthy places – based on the World Health Organization’s definition of health.

The latest stats show England’s health improved slightly during the second year of Covid – likely due to the easing of lockdown restrictions and vaccine rollout, researchers said.

Overall scores were up 0.7 points in 2021 compared to 2020, and there were improvements in personal well-being, mortality and physical health conditions.

However, marks still fell below levels seen pre-pandemic, with declines in healthy lives factors (alcohol, diet and exercise).

Greg Ceely, principal statistician at ONS, said: “The Healthy Lives score, representing the behaviours and circumstances which affect our health, declined further in 2021.

“Meanwhile, the Healthy Places category saw continued improvement, largely due to reduced air pollution and household overcrowding.

“We will continue to gather and analyse the data to better understand health trends in 2021 and beyond.

“In the meantime, we encourage everyone to try our Health Index online tool to explore how health has changed in their area.”

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