Key Facts for Hull

This page gives a summary of the key facts for Hull relating to health and wellbeing of Hull’s population including information on Hull’s population and demographics, as well as other factors which influence health and wellbeing such as lifestyle and behavioural factors, and wider determinants of health such as deprivation and poverty, housing, the environment, crime, education and employment.

More detail on these and other individual topic areas can be found throughout our JSNA website (see Where Do I Find The Information I Want? for a list of topic areas).

This page contains information from the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities’ Fingertips. Information is taken ‘live’ from the site so uses the latest available data from Fingertips and displays it on this page. As a result, some comments on this page may relate to an earlier period of time until this page is next updated (see review dates at the end of this page).

In July 2022, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) ceased to exist and were replaced by the Integrated Care System. The sub Integrated Care Board areas which include Hull are within the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board. In Fingertips, the sub-ICB area referenced by 03F relates to Hull (see Integrated Care Board for the codes relating to the other local sub-ICB areas).

Headlines

• Hull is the fourth most deprived local authority in England.
• Hull’s resident population is estimated to be 267,020 from the 2021 Census, and Hull’s population is relatively young compared to the England average.
• Over 300,000 patients are registered with Hull GPs (with a sizeable number – around one in nine registered patients – living in East Riding of Yorkshire).
• People in Hull are dying earlier than they should and there are wide inequalities / differences in life expectancy both between Hull and England, and within Hull.
• From the A Matter of Life and Death report, “Social and economic conditions such as poverty, poor-quality housing, low-paid or unstable jobs all impact people’s physical and mental health. These ‘wider determinants of health’ are harming health and cutting lives short.”

Deprivation and Poverty

As with most cities, there are high levels of deprivation in certain areas within the city. Most other cities include some of the ‘leafy subburbs’ within their boundary, but this is less of the case with Hull’s tight geographical boundaries. This means that Hull is among the most deprived places in England.

Based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019, Hull is the fourth most deprived local authority in England (out of 317). Half of Hull’s 166 geographical areas on which the IMD is based, are in the most deprived fifth nationally.

There are also large variations in deprivation scores across Hull’s 21 ward.

Hull also has a high percentage of children living in absolute and relative poverty, and the percentages differ markedly across Hull’s wards. There is also a high percentage of children who are eligible for free school meals.

From Hull’s adult Health and Wellbeing Survey conducted in 2019 involving over 4,000 residents aged 16+ years, just over one-quarter of all adults would never use their savings or current account to fund a £200 household emergency or said this option was not applicable to them. This was considerably higher among people living in the most deprived areas of Hull, who were unemployed or not working due to long-term illness or disability, lone parents, and among households containing three or more children. Overall, this equates to around 54,100 adults in Hull who would never use their savings or current account to fund a £200 household emergency or said that this option was not applicable to them.

However, this survey was undertaken prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis, and the situation with regard to household finances and financial resilience has considerably worsened in Hull since 2019.

Population and Demographics

From the 2021 Census, it is estimated that 267,020 people live in Hull. This is just under 8,000 higher than the mid-year resident population estimates from the Office for National Statistics over the last few years for 2020 (259,126), 2019 (259,778) and 2018 (260,645), and over 23,000 people higher than estimates from the 2001 Census (243,589).

There was an even split in Hull between men (133,231) and women (133,789).

Each five year age band from 0-4 to 60-64 contains between 5.6% and 6.5% (between 14,928 and 17,345 people) of the overall population with the exception of those aged 20-39 years which are slightly higher (between 7.0% and 7.8%) due to the student population and young population living in the city (between 18,706 and 20,818 people). Overall, there are an estimated 40,825 people aged 65+ years living in Hull representing 15.3% of Hull’s total population.

Around one quarter (24.5%) of Hull’s population was aged 0-19 years, just under one-quarter (25.6%) aged 20-36 years, one quarter (25.2%) aged 37-56 years and just over one-quarter (24.7%) aged 57+ years.

Between mid-year 2019 and mid-year 2020, there were 3,178 births and 2,734 deaths in Hull.

The population pyramid shows the age and gender structure of Hull’s population compared to England.

Based on the general practice registration file for January 2022, the estimated resident population is slightly higher than the Office for National Statistics’ estimate for Hull at 283,696 residents with 306,545 patients registered with general practices in Hull. A total of 310,753 people are either registered with a Hull GP as a patient or live in Hull based on the GP registration file for January 2022.

Of the 310,753 people who either live in Hull or who are registered with a Hull GP, nine in ten of them both living in Hull and registered with a Hull GP (279,488 people). Of the estimated 283,696 residents from the GP registration file, 279,488 are registered with Hull GPs, 3,799 are registered with East Riding of Yorkshire GPs and 409 are registered with GPs outside Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire. Of the 306,545 patients registered with Hull GPs, 279,488 live in Hull, 26,922 live in East Riding of Yorkshire and 135 live outside of Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire. Thus 8.8% of all patients registered with Hull GPs do not live in Hull. Thus, if services are delivered within primary care, this discrepancy in the population is an important consideration.

Resident	Hull GP	ERoY GP	Other GP	Total registered population
Resident of Hull	279,488	3,799	409	283,696
Resident of ERoY	26,922			26,922
Resident elsewhere	135			135
Total residents	306,545	3,799	409	310,753

In the 2021 Census, it was estimated that the 91.8% of Hull’s residents were White with 83.9% being White British, 0.2% White Irish, 021% White Gypsy or Irish Traveller and 0.1% Roma. A further 7.4% were Other White (mainly Eastern Europeans). 1.7% of residents had two or more ethnicities (often denoted as ‘Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups’), 2.8% were Asian or Asian British (including 0.5% Chinese), 1.9% were Black or Black British, 0.5% were Arabs and 1.3% were from other ethnic groups.

The percentage of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) population in Hull differ dramatically across Hull’s wards and, has increased greatly over the last two decades. It was estimated that 97.7% of Hull residents were White and 96.4% were White British in 2001, falling to 94.1% and 89.7% respectively in 2011, and further decreasing to 91.8% and 83.9% in 2021.

The percentage of children from BAME groups attending Hull schools has increased from 9.1% in 2010 to 21.9% in 2021. From the January 2021 school census, 78.1% of pupils were White British, 9.8% from other White backgrounds, 4.0% from ‘Mixed’ BAME groups, 1.7% were Asian British or Asian, 2.0% were Black British or Black, 0.1% were Chinese, 3.0% were other ethnic groups, and 1.4% were unclassified. A total of 9,246 pupils had non white British heritage (considerably lower than England 21.9% versus 35.1%).

Population Projections

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produce population projections every two years, although the recent production has been delayed due to the 2021 Census. Based on mid-2018 population projections, they estimate that the resident population of Hull was 260,600 in 2018, and they project that this will increase very slightly to 262,100 by 2028 (an increase of 0.15%) and to 262,100 by 2043 (an increase of 0.57%).

Over the shorter term to 2028, ONS project a small decrease 0.15% among the 0-19 year age group, alongside decreases of 2.2% and 7.9% among those aged 20-39 years and 40-59 years respectively, and increases of 14.5% and 14.0% among those aged 60-79 years and 80+ years respectively. These mask relatively large individual changes within five year age groups such as an increases of 22.9%, 14.2%, 14.5%, 12.8%, 17.1%, 27.5% and 24.1% among those aged 15-19, 35-39, 40-44, 60-64, 65-69, 75-79 and 80-84 years respectively, and decreases of 11.0%, 12.8%, 18.3%, 11.2% and 23.8% among those aged 0-4, 5-9, 25-29, 45-49 and 50-54 years respectively.

Over the longer term to 2043, ONS project decreases of 3.9%, 0.4% and 7.6% among those aged 0-19, 20-39 and 40-59 years respectively, and increases of 8.1% and 54.0% among those aged 60-79 and 80+ years respectively.

Among those aged 65+ years, it is projected that Hull’s population will increase by 14.9% by 2028 (from 38,900 in 2018 to 44,700 in 2028) and by 24.9% by 2043 (to 48,600). Among those aged 85+ years, it is projected that the population will increase by 2.2% from 4,600 in 2018 to 4,700 in 2028, but by 52% to 7,000 in 2043.

Life Expectancy

Life expectancy in Hull is lower than in England, and the inequalities gap has been increasing.

Life expectancy at birth does not give the expected duration of life for a newborn; it gives a measure of expected life expectancy if the current age-specific mortality rates applied throughout an entire lifetime, but of course, these are subject to changes over time. So life expectancy gives an indication of the current health status of a population, rather than an expected duration of life.

Whilst life expectancy has increased since 2001-03 in Hull, life expectancy has remained relatively static over the recent decade or so. This is not unique to Hull; across England the rate of increase observed earlier in the century has slowed. As the rate of increase is smaller for Hull, the inequalities gap between Hull and England has increased over time.

Healthy life expectancy is a measure of the average number of years a person would expect to live in good health based on contemporary mortality rates and prevalence of self-reported good health. Healthy life expectancy is lower in Hull compared to England, and furthermore, when comparing life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, people in Hull live a shorter time in good health.

Examining trends over time show that healthy life expectancy at birth has remained relatively static with more apparent changes in the last couple of years.

In the last two years among men, healthy life expectancy has reduced particularly between 2017-19 and 2018-20 which could be influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Healthy life expectancy increased among women between 2016-18 and 2017-19 by three years – a considerable increase. However, healthy life expectancy among women decreased between 2017-19 and 2018-20 which could be associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the increase the previous year was greater than the decrease last year, so healthy life expectancy is higher in 2018-20 than it was in 2016-18.

Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy at age 65 years in Hull are also lower than England.

There has been a gradual decrease in life expectancy among Hull men at age 65 years between 2012-14 and 2018-20 falling from 16.8 years to 16.2 years. The decrease in life expectancy at age 65 years among Hull women has been smaller having decreased from 19.3 years in 2011-13 to 18.8 years in 2018-20.

Healthy life expectancy at age 65 years has increased slightly for men between 2013-15 and 2017-19 from 6.6 years to 7.9 years. Whilst there was an increase in healthy life expectancy at age 65 years among women between 2009-11 and 2013-15, it has been relatively static since then.

The Office for Health Improvement & Disparities’ Segment Tool examines the gap in life expectancy between England and each local authority and between the most and least deprived fifths of areas within each local authority in relation to the causes of death which have the greatest excess of deaths and thus causes which contribute to the most years towards this gap.

The gap in life expectancy between Hull and England for 2020-21 was 4.4 years for men (life expectancy 74.3 years in Hull compared to 78.7 years in England) and 3.3 years for women (life expectancy 79.4 years in Hull compared to 82.7 years in England).

Circulatory disease and cancer were the causes of death which had the highest excess deaths in Hull contributing to the gap in life expectancy between Hull and England for 2020-21. If the age-specific mortality rates from circulatory disease were the same in Hull as they were for England, then life expectancy would be 1.10 years higher for men and 0.66 years higher for women in Hull, and if age-specific mortality rates for cancer in Hull were the same as for England, then life expectancy in Hull would increase by 0.87 years for men and 0.90 years for women.

Of the total gap in life expectancy between Hull and England for men, circulatory disease accounts for one-quarter of the gap (25%), cancer (20%), external causes (19%), COVID-19 (12%), respiratory disease (10%), other causes (6%), digestive diseases (5%), and mental and behavioural disorders (4%). Among women, cancer accounted for 28% of the overall gap, circulatory disease (20%), respiratory disease (15%), COVID-19 (11%), digestive disease (8%), other causes (8%), mental and behavioural disorders (6%), external causes (5%) and deaths under 28 days (1%).

In Hull for 2020-21, The Office for Health Improvement & Disparities’ Segment Tool estimate that life expectancy at birth is 69.9 years for men living in the most deprived fifth of areas of Hull compared to 79.1 years for men living in the least deprived fifth of areas of Hull giving a gap of 9.2 years. For women, their life expectancy at birth estimates are 76.1 and 83.6 years for the most and least deprived fifth of areas respectively giving a gap of 7.4 years.

Among men, circulatory disease contributes 2.42 years to this life expectancy gap, external causes 2.12 years and cancer 1.51 years. Among women, the causes with the greatest excess deaths contributing to the local life expectancy gap are for cancer (1.56 years), circulatory disease (1.41 years) and respiratory disease (1.20 years). In total among men, circulatory disease contributes 26% to this total gap in life expectancy within Hull, 23% for external causes, 16% for cancer, 11% for respiratory disease, 9% for COVID-19, 6% for other causes, 5% for mental and behavioural disorders, and 4% for digestive diseases. For women, the percentages are 21% for cancer, 19% for circulatory disease, 16% for respiratory disease, 11% for mental and behavioural disorders, 10% for external causes, 9% for other causes, 8% for COVID-19, 5% for digestive diseases, and 1% for deaths under 28 days.

Wider Determinants of Health

High levels of deprivation in Hull result in detrimental levels for a number of wider determinants of health.

The percentage of children who achieve a good level of development and the percentage of children who have special educational needs (either have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan or require Special Education Needs Support) are given below. The first time entrants into the youth justice system are given as the numbers of 10-17 year olds receiving their first reprimand, warning or conviction per 100,000 population. The numbers not in education, employment or training are given as a percentage of all those whose activity is known. The under 18 conception rate is given as the number of conceptions among under 18s per 1,000 female population aged 15-17 years. Children in care is given as the number of children looked after as at 31 March for the year per 10,000 population aged under 18 years.

The percentage of the working-age people in employment and claiming Employment and Support Allowance is also given below. The number of domestic abuse-related incidents and crimes and number of violence against the person offences are both given as a rate per 1,000 population.

General Physical Health

Health tends to be poorer and tends to occur at an earlier age in Hull compared to most other places in England due to the high levels of deprivation and poverty in Hull as well as the higher levels of poor housing, lower educational attainment, higher unemployment and poorer quality employment, crime, domestic abuse and other detrimental factors in relation to the wider determinants of health. People in Hull have a higher prevalence of lifestyle and behavioural risk factors such as smoking, poor diet, physical inactivity, alcohol and drug use, and obesity which all further impact on health. These factors impact on both physical health and emotional wellbeing.

In Hull’s Heath and Wellbeing Survey 2019, 8.4% reported their health as ‘excellent’, 27.3% as ‘very good’, 34.0% as ‘good’, 20.6% as ‘fair’ and 9.6% as ‘poor’. Unsurprisingly, there was a strong association with poor health and older age and higher levels of deprivation.

Three in ten also reported a long-term illness or disability that limited their daily activities.

Emotional Wellbeing

Levels of wellbeing are lower in Hull compared to England, although data is not necessarily available for all local authorities due to the small number of people surveyed.

People were asked, overall, how satisfied they were with their life nowadays, to what extent they felt the things they do in their life are worthwhile, how happy they felt yesterday and how anxious they felt yesterday. They were asked to rate their emotional wellbeing on a scale of 0 to 10 with 0 equating to not at all satisfied / worthwhile / happy / anxious and 10 equating to completely satisfied / worthwhile / happy / anxious. People who scored 0-4 were deemed to have poor satisfaction, feelings of being worthwhile and happiness, and people who scored 6-10 were deemed to have high levels of anxiety.

The percentages with low levels of satisfaction with life, feeling life was worthwhile, and happiness are higher in Hull compared to England. However, the percentages from Hull’s adult Health and Wellbeing Survey 2019 were substantially higher than those estimated nationally for Hull at 14%, 12%, 16% and 31% respectively. The local survey includes many more Hull people than the national survey and due to its methodology is likely to be more representative of Hull’s population. The local survey also found these levels were substantially worse among people living in the most deprived areas and were very high among people who were not working due to long-term illness or disability where around half had low levels low levels of satisfaction with life, feeling life was worthwhile, and happiness.

Relatively high percentages had a high level of anxiety, but it was higher among women, young people, people living in the most deprived area, students, people who were unemployed or not working due to long-term illness or disability, and lone parents.

Young people, people living in the most deprived areas of Hull, students, people who were not working due to unemployment or long-term illness or disability, and lone parents had the highest levels of feeling lonely or isolated from others all or most of the time.

Lifestyle and Behavioural Factors

The prevalence of lifestyle and behavioural risk factors for poor health are higher in Hull as illustrated from The Office for Health Improvement & Disparities’ Fingertips (from different national surveys), although again there were some differences between the national data for Hull and findings from Hull’s adult Health and Wellbeing Survey 2019 with a tendency for a higher prevalence of lifestyle and behavioural risk factors in the local survey compared to national estimates. In some cases, there was an extremely large difference between the national data for Hull and the findings from the local survey and this was the case for 5-A-DAY and physical activity.

There are no prevalence estimates for alcohol consumption on Fingertips, but there are modelled estimates of the number of alcohol-related admissions to hospital which give an indication of prevalence and service need.

Each hospital admission has a primary diagnosis code relating to the main cause for the admission and reason why the person has been admitted. Most admissions will also have one or more secondary diagnosis codes which can give additional information relating to the primary diagnosis (in some cases information relating to an external factor) or can give additional medical conditions that needs to be considered in relation to the person’s care within hospital (see International Coding of Diseases for more information). Each diagnosis code for a hospital admission has been assigned an ‘alcohol attributable fraction‘ (AAF) for each gender and age group based on extensive research. Conditions that are wholly attributable to alcohol such as alcohol poisoning or alcoholic liver disease are given a value of 1 whereas other conditions such as those related to external causes such as car accidents might have a value of 0.2 (denoting that 20% of the admissions are alcohol-related) and other conditions will have an AAF of zero as there is no evidence that the condition is related to alcohol. The rate of alcohol-related admissions using the ‘narrow’ definition includes all AAFs for primary diagnoses and all secondary diagnoses that are related to external causes (such as car accidents, falls, suicides, etc), and the number is given as the total admissions (sum over the AAFs) per 100,000 population.

The estimated prevalence of people who use opiate and/or crack cocaine are also calculated in a different way. The estimated prevalence uses a capture-recapture method to estimate the number of people who used opiate and/or crack cocaine. The capture-recapture method is often used to estimate the population size of an animal species with animals trapped, marked in a harmless way and released, and then new traps are set a few days later, and the number of marked and unmarked animals caught being recorded. The population size is then estimated to be the number in the first sample multiplied by the number in the second sample divided by the number in the second sample previously marked. In the case of opiate and/or crack use, the number of people who use opiate and/or crack cocaine were identified from drug treatment, probation, police and prison data was used, and then the overlap between the data sources was used together with modelling techniques to examine this overlap and to produce prevalence estimates for those aged 15-64 years based on this capture-recapture methodology.

From Hull’s Health and Wellbeing Survey 2019 conducted among those aged 16+ years:

• 25% smoked (including 4.5% who smoked 20+ cigarettes per day) and 29% were former smokers;
• 13% used e-cigarettes;
• 21% stated they ate 5-A-DAY portions of fruit and vegetables daily, but 7% usually ate no portions of fruit and vegetables;
• 27% stated they did not have a healthy diet (and a further 10% did not know what a healthy diet was or if they if they had a healthy diet);
• 41% of adults were physically active undertaking 150+ minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity per week and 44% were inactive undertaking fewer than 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity per week;
• 70% were overweight including 31% who were obese;
• 22% never drank alcohol, but 30% displayed harmful alcohol drinking behaviours (exceeding 14 units the previous week, usually binge drink weekly and/or a Fast Alcohol Screening Test of three or more);
• 8.3% stated they had used drugs other than those required for medical reasons in the last year, including 3.7% who stated they used them everyday or weekly; and
• 4% had lied to people important to them about their gambling and/or felt the need to bet more and more money in the last year.

There were substantial differences by gender, age, deprivation, employment status and household composition with the highest percentages with lifestyle and behavioural risk factors for poor health generally found among young people, people living in the most deprived areas, people who were unemployed or not working due to long-term illness or disability, and lone parents. Further information on each lifestyle and behavioural risk factor can be found in Lifestyle Factors within Adults, and further information is also available in the full survey report available in Local Surveys Involving Adults under Tools and Resources.

Prevalence of Medical Conditions and Diseases

A number of specific diseases and medical conditions are measured within the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) within primary care. These disease registers can be used to measure diagnosed prevalence at a practice level as well as at sub Integrated Care Board level.

The number of patients registered with Hull GPs is over 305,000 which is higher than the estimated resident population from the Office for National Statistics (which is around 260,000). Almost 27,000 residents of East Riding of Yorkshire are registered with Hull GPs. Only around 4,000 residents of Hull are registered with GPs outside the Hull area. Estimates of resident population based on the GP registration file are around 24,000 higher than official estimates of the resident population. Thus the QOF data comprises around 91% of Hull residents and around 9% of East Riding of Yorkshire residents.

Fingertips presents the percentage of patients on these disease registers at sub ICB level. With higher levels of deprivation, one might expect that the prevalence of some conditions to be higher in Hull. However, this is not necessarily the case. There are many factors that can influence the prevalence in Hull such as the lower age structure of Hull’s population, lower numbers of people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups, higher mortality rates and slightly lower life expectancy, and the rate of diagnosis. It is possible that there are more people living in Hull who have a specific disease or medical condition but it is not diagnosed, and therefore they are not included on their GP disease registers. There tends to be higher rates of undiagnosed disease among areas with higher deprivation levels.

A local analysis of the information has been undertaken for Hull for 2021/22 and is presented in the following file.

The sub Integrated Care Board areas which include Hull are within the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board. In Fingertips, the sub-ICB area referenced by 03F relates to Hull (see Integrated Care Board for the codes relating to the other local sub-ICB areas).

For 2021/22, the diagnosed prevalence of coronary heart disease, hypertension or high blood pressure, and peripheral arterial disease are all higher among patients registered with Hull GPs compared to England, but the prevalence of stroke and transient ischaemic attack, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation are all lower.

The prevalence of epilepsy and diabetes is higher in Hull than England, but the prevalence of chronic kidney disease is lower.

The diagnosed prevalence of asthma is the same in Hull as England for 2021/22, but the diagnosed prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is considerably higher in Hull compared to England.

The diagnosed prevalence of depression and severe mental health illness in Hull are similar to England.

Compared to England, the prevalence of learning disability is higher in Hull but the prevalence of dementia is lower.

The prevalence of diagnosed osteoporosis is considerably lower in Hull than England being half the levels of England, but the prevalence of diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis is the same as England.

Premature Mortality

Mortality from causes considered preventable, premature mortality (under 75 years) for cardiovascular disease, cancer, liver disease and respiratory disease, all age communicable disease mortality including influenza and mortality from suicide are all higher in Hull compared to England. In most cases, the mortality rates in Hull are substantially higher than England and for all except communicable diseases statistically significantly higher in Hull compared to England. The mortality rate from specified communicable diseases is higher in Hull compared to England, but not statistically significantly so.

The figures are presented as the direct standardised mortality rates per 100,000 population aged under 75 years (standardised to the European Standard Population).

Whilst the premature mortality rate for causes considered preventable decreased between 2001-03 and 2011-13, the rate has remained relatively unchanged albeit with a slight reduction in the last two years to 2017-19. Over the entire period 2001-03 to 2017-19, there has been a gradual increase in the inequalities gap with England as the rate in England has continued to fall.