July 2025
The next update to local health, public health data for small geographical areas, will be on the 5 August 2025. The release will include updates to mortality, life expectancy, childhood obesity, general fertility rate, low birth weight babies, fuel poverty, unemployment and long-term unemployment indicators.
Data will only be produced for middle layer super output areas (MSOA), lower-tier and upper-tier local authorities (LTLA and UTLA), regions and England. Data for wards and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will be removed from the tool.
We are exploring ways to produce small geographical area data which can be built up into larger areas to make recent data available more quickly. This may mean that it is possible to reinstate indicators for wards at a later date. We also aim to include data for NHS geographies in future releases.
We will be removing some indicators in this release where the data is very old and cannot be updated with a new time point. We will provide links to indicators based on Census 2021.
April 2025
Please note the www.localhealth.org.uk website has now been decomissioned as explained in the recent update note from January 2025. All queries to the decomissioned site should be redirected here. This local health fingertips profile contains the same data as the decomissioned tool.
Profile background: Local health is a collection of public health indicators presented at small geographical areas. By breaking the data down to smaller areas, hidden inequalities can highlighted.
A core aim of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) is reducing health inequalities. Local health data can be used to target interventions in areas where there is most need.
Local health allows comparisons between small and large areas, for a single point in time. The data is not designed for time trend analysis. The data covers areas ranging from middle super output areas (MSOA), electoral wards, local authorities, and England.
The latest local health statistical commentary for the 2022 update: Local health commentary
Further guidance to geographic areas: Office for National Statistics UK geographies page.
Guidance on methods for small geographic areas: The association of public health observatories (APHO) technical briefing 6
Contact us: For enquiries or feedback relating to local health, email PHA-OHID@dhsc.gov.uk
January 2025
Following the health and social care statistical output consultation in 2024 it has been decided to only retain the local health small area data profile within the DHSC Fingertips public health profiles tool and to decommission the additional geographical information systems (GIS) digital platform hosted separately Local Health - Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.
Small area public health data that supports the understanding of variation and inequalities in small geographic area was acknowledge as an important statistical output for DHSC.
Both digital platforms contain the same data but have slightly different functionality. The decision to consolidate the dataset into one tool was taken for the following reasons;
• Government Digital Services should not be duplicated across websites to avoid confusion for end users
• The Fingertips platform is the "flagship" digital platform for the publication of public health data. It is well used and understood by stakeholders
The local health geographical information systems (GIS) digital platform hosted separately Local Health - Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. will therefore be decommissioned on 31 March 2025.
November 2024
National child measurement programme (NCMP) data for the following indicators have been updated with data for the financial year ending 2024 to the financial year ending 2024: Reception: prevalence of obesity (including severe obesity), Reception: prevalence of overweight (including obesity), year 6: prevalence of obesity (including severe obesity), and year 6: prevalence of overweight (including obesity)
30th May 2024
2024/2025 update: The delay in updating the data and maps within the Local Health tool is due to a delay in the publication of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) small area population estimates for 2012 to 2020. They are expected in October or November 2024, however as this is a provisional date, it is subject to change.
Many of the indicators within local health use three or five-year pooled data, so although the ONS has published 2021 and 2022 small area population estimates, we need the earlier ones for calculating the indicators. For three-year pooled we need 2020 to 2022, and for five-year pooled we need 2018 to 2022.
The Local Health tool is not designed for trend data, therefore the update period may not be a direct follow on from the data currently shown. We will publish the most up to date data we can, so depending on when we are able to update the tool there may be more recent data available, for example 2022 to 2023 data.
We have also been awaiting the results of the Health and Social Care Statistical Outputs consultation that took place earlier this year. The outcome of this consultation may result in changes to the content and updating schedule for any DHSC public health data tool, of which Local Health is one
The local health GIS tool is now available.
24th May 2024
We are aware of issues with the local health GIS tool not being available and are working on getting this resolved ASAP. All the data that appears in the local health GIS web tool is also available in this Fingertips profile.
December 2023
National child measurement programme (NCMP) data for the following indicators have been updated with data for the financial year ending 2022 to the financial year ending 2022: Reception: prevalence of obesity (including severe obesity), Reception: prevalence of overweight (including obesity), year 6: prevalence of obesity (including severe obesity), and year 6: prevalence of overweight (including obesity)
2023 Next data and boundary update
Please note that we have not been able to do a 2023 update to local health as the majority of indicators rely on the small area population estimates produced by the office for national statistics (ONS).
ONS has had a delay in publishing the new small area population estimates and the revised back series we would need to update our indicators.
At the moment ONS is provisionally saying the population estimates will be published in spring 2024, please note this provisional date may alter. Once the estimates are published we will commence an indicator and boundary update as soon as possible. December 2022
December 2022
The following national child measurement programme indicators have been updated with data for the financial year ending 2020 to the financial year ending 2022: Reception: Prevalence of obesity (including severe obesity), 3 years data combined, Reception: Prevalence of overweight (including obesity), 3 years data combined, year 6: Prevalence of obesity (including severe obesity), 3 years data combined, and year 6: Prevalence of overweight (including obesity), 3 years data combined
August 2022
These documents give full details of updates to indicators for each release: Full details of indicators updated August 2022
This update contains: 47 indicators updated with data for the latest available time period and the latest available boundaries, 13 indicators that have been remodelled to the latest boundaries, 9 indicators that are not being updated, and boundaries updated to Ward 2021 and CCG 2021
Full details can be found by clicking the link at the top of this section.
June 2021
These documents give full details of updates to indicators for each release: Full details of indicators updated June 2021
This update contains: 49 indicators updated with data for the latest available time period and the latest available boundaries, 5 new indicators, 6 indicators that have been remodelled to the latest boundaries, and Bbundaries updated to Ward 2020, CCG 2020, LTLA and UTLA to 2021
Full details can be found by clicking the link at the top of this section.
January 2021
Updated life expectancy at MSOA for 2015 to 2019 (5 year pooled data) has been made available in the local health fingertips profile.
Life expectancy data for 2015 to 2019 for wards, lower tier, and upper tier local authorities and CCG is not available at the moment but will be updated in the Local Health Fingertips profile and in the Local Health mapping tool (www.localhealth.org.uk) later in 2021.
March 2020
PHE’s local health tool (www.localhealth.org.uk) will be upgraded on Tuesday 3 March 2020.
The new web tool has been redesigned to improve user experience by creating a modern looking interface with faster response times which enables access to all site functionality on mobile touch screen devices.
Key functionality from the old web tool has been retained allowing users to map data and provide spine charts and reports for small areas, as well as allowing users to define their own geographies and add their own data.
The indicators presented in the upgraded web tool were published in June 2019.
A quick start guide for the upgraded web tool is available here.
June 2019
These documents give full details of updates to indicators for each release: Full details of indicators updated June 2019
This update contains: 36 indicators updated with data for the latest available time period and the latest available boundaries, 7 new indicators, 11 indicators that have been remodelled to the latest boundaries, and an update of wards and CCGs to 2018 boundaries. This includes those indicators for which more recent data is not available.
