Census shows improvements in health and disability, but regional differences persist

[THE Office of National Statistics (ONS) has published findings from Census 2021 that show the proportion of people who reported to be in very good health in England and Wales increased over the previous decade.

After adjusting for differences in age profiles of the population between 2011 and 2021, census data on general health show an increase in the proportion of people across England and Wales reporting their health as very good to 47.5% (28.8 million) in 2021, up from 45.0% (26.4 million) in 2011.

The releases also show a smaller proportion of people were identified as disabled, while the proportion of unpaid carers aged five years and over has also decreased since Census 2011.

“Census 2021 data show we reported our overall health has improved over the decade, coinciding with a decline in the proportion of disabled people,” said Census 2021 director Jon Wroth-Smith. “The census is a point in time estimate and was taken during a pandemic and a time of lockdown. The unique circumstances of the pandemic may have influenced the results.

“For instance, we are also seeing fewer unpaid carers. Potential explanations for this large change in the provision of unpaid care could be a result of lockdown measures, with people who previously shared caring responsibilities with a sibling, for instance, taking on that role alone due to a reduction in household mixing. This could be why, while the number of unpaid carers has declined, we have seen an increase in the proportion of people providing more hours of care as individuals took on more responsibility.

“However, this is just one possible explanation. Another could be the high numbers of deaths due to COVID-19 in 2020 and early 2021. Sadly, this could have led to a reduction in the need for unpaid care, while changes in the question wording between 2011 and 2021, for both the unpaid care and disability questions, may have had an impact on results too.

“There will be further insights from the census to follow as we look at health, disability and unpaid care by topics such as deprivation and other protected characteristics, which will give us an even clearer picture across England and Wales.”

The optimistic outlook was tempered, however, by a second release which showed that the difference traditionally seen in the regions in those reporting good health and disabled, as well as those acting as carers, continued to show. Despite improvements, parts of the North of England and areas of Wales had some of the highest proportions of people who reported being in bad or very bad health, were disabled and limited a lot in their day-to-day activities, or spent 20 hours or more per week providing unpaid care.

An infographic from the ONS shows what proportions of people in different areas are adversely affected by their circumstances in each of the three categories of health, disability and unpaid care. q