Headline statistics: what does the data tell us?

1. The population of Coventry is around 345,300.
2. The average (median) age of residents of Coventry is 35 years of age (compared with 40 nationally).
3. Life expectancy is 10.7 years higher for men and 8.3 years higher for women in the least deprived areas of Coventry than in the most deprived areas.
4. In the latest census, around 242,100 Coventry residents said they were born in England. This represented 70.1% of the local population.
5. 55.9% of Coventry’s school children are from an ethnic minority group compared with 35.0% nationally.
6. Children living in poverty (financial year ending 2021) 22.9% compared with 18.5% nationally
7. In 2020 the percentage of households in fuel poverty in Coventry increased to 20.3% from 18.8% in 2019.
8. According to the local concentration measure, Coventry ranks as 66th most deprived out of 317, an improvement from 38th in the IMD 2015. This ranks local authorities in terms of the deprivation levels experienced by the most deprived 10% of the local population.
9. Coventry has an Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) score of 0.218 (2019). This measures the proportion of all children aged 0 to 15 living in income-deprived families. The average for West Midlands combined authority is 0.235.
10. Coventry has an Income Deprivation Affecting Older People Index (IDAOPI) score of 0.190 (2019). This measures the proportion of all those aged 60 or over who experience income deprivation. The average for West Midlands combined authority is 0.203.

Sources:

1. ONS
2. ONS
3. Fingertips
4. Census 2021
5. Child Health Profile Fingertips
6. Child Health Profile Fingertips
7. Facts about Coventry
8. LG Inform English Indices of Deprivation 2019
9. LG Inform
10. LG Inform

Population density

Population density measures the number of persons per hectare. As of 2021, the population density of the United Kingdom was 276 people per square kilometre. Of the countries which make up the United Kingdom, England is the most densely populated at 434 people per square kilometre. In England, there were 3 people for each football pitch-sized area of land (434 per square kilometre).

As of 2021, Coventry is the fourth most densely populated of the West Midlands’ 30 local authorities, with around 25 people living on each football pitch-sized area of land (3,501 people per square kilometre). Only Birmingham (4,275), Sandwell (3,995) and Wolverhampton (3,798) are more densely populated.

The West Midlands is the third largest densely populated area in the United Kingdom in 2021 with 4.58 persons per hectare. The latest available data, for 2020, suggests the population density per square kilometre in Coventry is 34.81 persons per hectare, with significant variations per ward; the most densely populated area is Hillfields with 10,867 people per square kilometre and the least densely populated is Brownshill Green with 426 people per square kilometre.

Source: LG Inform. Accessed July 2023.

The Health Index 2020 – measuring the nation’s health

The Health Index is a measure of overall health in England. It uses a broad definition of health, including health outcomes, health-related behaviours and personal circumstances, and wider drivers of health. It provides a single value for health that can show how health changes over time.

The Health Index is organised around three broad areas:

• Healthy People: covers health outcomes such as life expectancy, physical health conditions like dementia, cancer and kidney disease, disability, personal well-being and mental health.
• Healthy Lives: covers health-related behaviours and personal circumstances including obesity, hypertension, drug misuse, smoking and cancer screening.
• Healthy Places: covers the wider social, economic and environmental drivers of health such as crime, unemployment, child poverty, pollution, noise and road traffic.

The score can show whether health in a local area is improving. The Health Index score has a baseline of 100, which represents England’s health in 2015. A score higher than 100 means that an area has better health for that measure than was average in 2015, lower than 100 means worse health than the 2015 average.

Source: Office of National Statistics (ONS) Health Index for England:2015-2020. Accessed July 2023.

Health in England as an overall figure measured by the Health Index declined slightly in 2020, when compared with 2019 (0.4 point decline). At 100.1 it remained a little above 2015 levels, however, the health score for both Coventry and West Midlands Region remains lower than the England index and in 2020 both declined and are still below the England 2015 score.

In 2020 Coventry's best score across all subdomains was 107.9 for health relating to "access to services".

"Access to services" looks at the distance to GP services, distance to pharmacies, distance to sports or leisure facilities, internet access, and patients offered acceptable GP practice appointments. In-person services in this category were limited during the coronavirus pandemic.

The second highest scoring subdomain was "crime", while Coventry's worst score was for "protective measures".

In 2020 Coventry's lowest indicator score was for child vaccination coverage (79.4) and its highest score was for air pollution (112.6).