Living in the Lancaster District
We want to talk about health, work and housing in our district
Introduction text – Yak
Health
The Local Health Website published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities presents quality assured health-related data down to ward level across England. It tells us about differences in a range of public health indicators between regions and within local authority areas.
In particular, the Lancaster District:
- has a higher rate of deaths registered as suicide than both Lancashire and England. In 2021, the rate in Lancaster was 15.7 per 100,000 people, compared to 13.5 per 100,000 people in Lancashire, and 10.4 per 100,000 people in England.
- has a higher rate of hip fractures among people aged 65 and over. In 2021, the rate in Lancaster was 570 fractures per 100,000 people aged 65 and over, while in Lancashire it was 526 and in England as a whole the rate was 529.
- has a higher conception rate among people aged under 18. In 2020 the conception rate in Lancaster was 19.3 per 1,000 people aged under 18, while in Lancashire it was 16.5 per 1,000 and in England as a whole the rate was 13.0.
There are also several public health indicators in which the Lancaster district demonstrates better outcomes. In our area, the estimated diagnosis rates (the number of patients diagnosed as a percentage of estimated prevalence) for diabetes and dementia are better than the rates in both Lancashire and England. Hospital admissions for intentional self-harm and alcohol specific conditions are also lower in our district than elsewhere.
Ward-level data
Wellbeing
The Office for National Statistics publishes an annual indicator tracking four personal wellbeing estimates across local authority areas. Individuals are asked to rate their anxiety, happiness, life satisfaction, and the extent to which they feel life is worthwhile on an 11 point scale which is mapped to thresholds between very poor and very good.
According to the 2021 dataset, people in the Lancaster district are more anxious than those in Lancashire or England as a whole. 31% of respondents in our district reported their anxiety
Work and Income
The number of unemployed people in the UK is measured by the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and includes people who meet the international definition of unemployment specified by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). This ILO definition defines unemployed people as being:
- without a job, have been actively seeking work in the past four weeks and are available to start work in the next two weeks
- out of work, have found a job and are waiting to start it in the next two weeks
Again using the Local Health website, we have accessed data showing the percentage of people in our wards who would have been considered unemployed under this definition in 2022.
Our wards with the highest unemployment (over 6%) are Skerton, Scale Hall, West End, Heysham North, Poulton and Westgate. Connectedly, these wards along with Bulk also contain the highest percentages of people living in income deprivation – which includes people living on low earnings – with a fifth or more of residents experiencing this issue in their lives.
Of those in work, people in the Lancaster district tend to work fewer hours than the population of Lancashire and England as a whole. This is particularly noticeable among those on lower salaries. Office for National Statistics data on earnings and hours worked for 2021 show that in the 10th percentile, men and women in the Lancaster district worked 16.7 and 10.1 hours per week respectively, compared to 12 and 20.6 in Lancashire and 22.5 in England.
Housing
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