This release provides insights into self-reported health in England and Wales in 2021, broken down by age and sex. Key findings are presented at country, regional and local authority level. Additional analyses compare general health to the 2011 Census and examines the relationship between deprivation and health at a national decile (England) or quintile (Wales) level can be found here.
In 2021 and 2011, people were asked “How is your health in general?”.
The response options were:
- Very good
- Good
- Fair
- Bad
- Very bad
Age specific percentage
Age-specific percentages are estimates of disability prevalence in each age group, and are used to allow comparisons between specified age groups. Further information is in the glossary.
Age-standardised percentage
Age-standardised percentages are estimates of disability prevalence in the population, across all age groups. They allow for comparison between populations over time and across geographies, as they account for differences in the population size and age structure. Further information is in the glossary.
Details on usage of Age-standardised percentage can be found here
Count
The count is the number of usual residents by general health status from very good to very bad, sex, age group and geographic breakdown. To ensure that individuals cannot be identified in the data, counts and populations have been rounded to the nearest 5, and counts under 10 have not been included..
General health
A person's assessment of the general state of their health from very good to very bad. This assessment is not based on a person's health over any specified period of time.
Index of Multiple Deprivation and Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation
National deciles and quintiles of area deprivation are created through ranking small geographical populations known as Lower layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs), based on their deprivation score from most to least deprived. They are then grouped into 10 (deciles) or 5 (quintiles) divisions based on the subsequent ranking. We have used the 2019 IMD and WIMD because this is the most up-to-date version at the time of publishing.
Population
The population is the number of usual residents of each sex, age group and geographic breakdown. To ensure that individuals cannot be identified in the data, counts and populations have been rounded to the nearest 5, and counts under 10 have not been included.
Usual resident
For Census 2021, a usual resident of the UK is anyone who, on census day, was in the UK and had stayed or intended to stay in the UK for a period of 12 months or more or had a permanent UK address and was outside the UK and intended to be outside the UK for less than 12 months.