Ten thousand Wiltshire children live in poverty

Public Health England have published their "Health Profiles" for 2013. This is a statistical analysis of the general health of the population and covers a wide range of indicators. Overall the news for Wiltshire is, as usual, good. However a number of concerns have been identified, including:

- about 10,500 children live in poverty.

- variations in life expectancy mean that in deprived areas men die 7 years, and women 4 years earlier than in affluent parts of the county.

- 16% of eleven year olds are too fat for their own good.

- we have a higher than average death and injury rate on our roads....

- and a worse than average rate of malignant melanoma...

- and a high rate of people hospitalised for self-harming.

PHE have identified the priorities for public health in Wiltshire as being drugs and alcohol, long term conditions, mental health, complex vulnerable families and long term social care and care home placements.

Here is a link to the full report - scroll down to find Wiltshire.