Introduction

This page contains data on health inequalities at England and local level. 

The Health Inequalities Dashboard and Segment Tool are both interactive web tools which can be accessed via the links below. Some additional data and resources are also provided on this page. 

Health Inequalities Dashboard

The Health Inequalities Dashboard provides information to monitor progress on reducing inequalities within England. It presents measures of inequality for 19 key indicators, the majority drawn from the Public Health Outcomes Framework. The dashboard measures trends in each indicator since a baseline period, with longer term data provided where these are available.

Access the Health Inequalities Dashboard here 

Segment Tool

The Segment Tool provides information on the causes of death and age groups that are driving inequalities in life expectancy at local area level. Targeting the causes of death and age groups which contribute most to the life expectancy gap should have the biggest impact on reducing inequalities.

Access the Segment Tool here 

Additional resources

To provide further understanding of local authority trends in life expectancy, an Excel file comparing current estimates with a range of earlier time periods has been produced. This file also highlights that current life expectancy in some areas is still lower than the average life expectancy in England 10, 15 and 20 years ago, and can be downloaded here.

To provide further understanding of geographic inequalities in life expectancy, and some of the other indicators in the Health Inequalities Dashboard, a set of maps has also been produced. The PowerPoint file can be downloaded here.

 

Recent updates

March 2021

The Health Inequalities Dashboard was updated in March 2021. The following changes were made:

  • Data was updated for 11 of the 19 indicators

  • Supplementary charts have been added for the Slope Index of Inequality measure for life expectancy at birth

  • Smoking prevalence in adults now contains a breakdown by sex for all geographies, with inequality measures also available by sex at England level for the majority of the inequality dimensions

  • The indicator of children in low income families (all dependent children under 20) has been replaced with two new indicators: children in absolute low income families and children in relative low income families. Both are based on children under 16 and further details can be found in the definitions tab 

September 2020

The Health Inequalities Dashboard was updated in September 2020. The following changes were made:

      • Data was updated for 8 of the 18 indicators

      •  The child excess weight indicator definition changed from prevalence of overweight and obese to prevalence of obesity and severely obese. Regional inequality measures were added

      •  Additional inequality groups were added to the smoking indicator including ethnic group, religion and country of birth

      •  The definitions tab was moved to sit within the data tab


March 2020

The Health Inequalities Dashboard was updated in March 2020. The following changes were made:

      • Data was updated for 10 of the 18 indicators

      • An absolute measure of inequality was added to the tool for premature cardiovascular disease mortality, infant mortality and alcohol related hospital admissions

      • Data at Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) level was added showing inequality in smoking prevalence

      • Developments to the user interface to improve ease of use

      • Improvement to guidance and metadata

      • The URL to access the tool has been changed

An additional resources section was also added to the page in March containing further information on inequalities in life expectancy and other indicators.

January 2020

The Segment Tool was updated in January 2020. The following changes were made to the tool:

      • Data for NHS geographies for the period 2015-17 were added. This includes data for NHS regions, NHS region local offices, Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STP), and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG)

      • An option to download an Excel file containing all data from the tool was added to the Breakdowns page

      • The URL to access the tool has been changed

May 2019

This page was created in May 2019 to host the Health Inequalities Dashboard and Segment Tool. Both tools were updated at the same time.

The following changes have been made to the Health Inequalities Dashboard since the previous update in September 2018:

      • The tool has been renamed ‘Health Inequalities Dashboard’

      • The grouping of the indicators into domains has been revised for consistency with the Public Health Outcomes Framework

      • All of the 18 indicators have been updated with latest inequality data at England level

      • Region and local authority level data have been added for 17 of the 18 indicators (all indicators except proportion of 5 year old children with dental decay)

      • Inequality data at region and local authority level have been added for 4 of the 18 indicators. It is planned that more local level inequality data will be added to the tool over time

The following changes have been made to the Segment Tool since the previous update in May 2016:

      • The tool has been redeveloped as an interactive web tool (using R shiny software), replacing the previous Excel based tool and pdf reports

      • Data has been updated to 2015-17

      • The methodology used to calculate the contributions of causes of death to life expectancy gaps has been revised for consistency with analysis presented in the Health Profile for England inequalities chapter

      • The detailed cause of death groups have been revised for consistency with the Health Profile for England analysis

      • The contribution of specific age groups to life expectancy gaps have been added

The methodology changes mean that the latest version of the Segment Tool is not comparable with previous versions of the tool, so older versions have been removed from the website.

 

Recent updates

March 2021

The Health Inequalities Dashboard was updated in March 2021. The following changes were made:

  • Data was updated for 11 of the 19 indicators

  • Supplementary charts have been added for the Slope Index of Inequality measure for life expectancy at birth

  • Smoking prevalence in adults now contains a breakdown by sex for all geographies, with inequality measures also available by sex at England level for the majority of the inequality dimensions

  • The indicator of children in low income families (all dependent children under 20) has been replaced with two new indicators: children in absolute low income families and children in relative low income families. Both are based on children under 16 and further details can be found in the definitions tab 

September 2020

The Health Inequalities Dashboard was updated in September 2020. The following changes were made:

      • Data was updated for 8 of the 18 indicators

      •  The child excess weight indicator definition changed from prevalence of overweight and obese to prevalence of obesity and severely obese. Regional inequality measures were added

      •  Additional inequality groups were added to the smoking indicator including ethnic group, religion and country of birth

      •  The definitions tab was moved to sit within the data tab


March 2020

The Health Inequalities Dashboard was updated in March 2020. The following changes were made:

      • Data was updated for 10 of the 18 indicators

      • An absolute measure of inequality was added to the tool for premature cardiovascular disease mortality, infant mortality and alcohol related hospital admissions

      • Data at Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) level was added showing inequality in smoking prevalence

      • Developments to the user interface to improve ease of use

      • Improvement to guidance and metadata

      • The URL to access the tool has been changed

An additional resources section was also added to the page in March containing further information on inequalities in life expectancy and other indicators.

January 2020

The Segment Tool was updated in January 2020. The following changes were made to the tool:

      • Data for NHS geographies for the period 2015-17 were added. This includes data for NHS regions, NHS region local offices, Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STP), and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG)

      • An option to download an Excel file containing all data from the tool was added to the Breakdowns page

      • The URL to access the tool has been changed

May 2019

This page was created in May 2019 to host the Health Inequalities Dashboard and Segment Tool. Both tools were updated at the same time.

The following changes have been made to the Health Inequalities Dashboard since the previous update in September 2018:

      • The tool has been renamed ‘Health Inequalities Dashboard’

      • The grouping of the indicators into domains has been revised for consistency with the Public Health Outcomes Framework

      • All of the 18 indicators have been updated with latest inequality data at England level

      • Region and local authority level data have been added for 17 of the 18 indicators (all indicators except proportion of 5 year old children with dental decay)

      • Inequality data at region and local authority level have been added for 4 of the 18 indicators. It is planned that more local level inequality data will be added to the tool over time

The following changes have been made to the Segment Tool since the previous update in May 2016:

      • The tool has been redeveloped as an interactive web tool (using R shiny software), replacing the previous Excel based tool and pdf reports

      • Data has been updated to 2015-17

      • The methodology used to calculate the contributions of causes of death to life expectancy gaps has been revised for consistency with analysis presented in the Health Profile for England inequalities chapter

      • The detailed cause of death groups have been revised for consistency with the Health Profile for England analysis

      • The contribution of specific age groups to life expectancy gaps have been added

The methodology changes mean that the latest version of the Segment Tool is not comparable with previous versions of the tool, so older versions have been removed from the website.