Spotlight

Health trends and variation in England, 2025: a Chief Medical Officer report

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), working with England’s Chief Medical Officer, has released the 2025 Health trends and variation in England report. This comprehensive report offers an overview of the health status of the population across England, covering areas such as lifestyle, mortality, and child health.

The report identifies significant trends over time and illustrates disparities across geographic regions, socioeconomic groups, age, sex, and ethnicity through a series of detailed charts and maps.

The report was developed using reproducible analytical pipelines by the DHSC’s Population Health Analysis team working alongside the Chief Medical Officer’s team. Their goal was to make the data easier to understand and bring together the latest findings in one place.

Data and release highlights

Infected Blood Inquiry: evidence and estimation

The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) has published a final case study in its ‘Statistics under pressure’ series. It explores how data can inform decision making, even when decisions need to be made based on imperfect data.

The final case study, Infected blood enquiry: evidence and estimation, highlights the vital role statisticians played in the infected blood inquiry.

The case study explores some of the limitations of the decades-old data and how the team provided robust estimates and confidence ratings. It also explores the impact of the decisions they made, and key lessons learned from the process.

Suicides in England and Wales: 1981 to 2024

The ONS has published updated statistics on suicides in England and Wales. This includes additional commentary on suicide occurrences.

The ONS has also published updated analysis of the impact of the standard of proof change on their suicide time series as well as a response to a recent consultation on ONS suicide statistics.

Deaths registered in England and Wales and death certification reform

The ONS has published its annual death registrations for 2024 in England and Wales as well as an article analysing death registrations since death certification reform, including time taken to register death, cause of death, and new ethnicity and pregnancy fields.

Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales

The ONS has published annual registrations for deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales. This includes information on different substances involved and occurrences.

Adult Social Care Services

In October, DHSC published several adult social care reports on the GOV.UK website. This is the first time these reports are being published on GOV.UK after responsibility for their publication moved from NHS England to DHSC.

Adult social care finance report, England, 2024-25 and Adult social care activity report, England, 2024-25

The activity and finance reports will now be published as standalone documents.

The Adult social care finance report (ASC-FR) presents data on adult social care finances in England, drawing on data submitted by local authorities.

The Adult social care activity report (ASC-AR) presents data on adult social care activity in England, using aggregated metrics built from the Client Level Data (CLD) set. Previous reports used the Short and Long Term (SALT) data collection which has now ceased. Existing measures have been replicated as far as possible, but there are some changes to the content of the report.

Personal social services adult social care survey, England 2024 to 2025

The personal social services adult social care survey (ASCS) is an annual survey for England covering service users aged 18 and over in receipt of long-term support services funded or managed by the social services following a full assessment of need.

Public health local area statistics

The Local Knowledge and Intelligence Service (LKIS) in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) has published three releases in the Public health local area statistics collection page.

• The Stop smoking service data explorer presents the latest published analysis on smoking prevalence, and the use of and experience of local authority funded stop smoking services, by different population groups.
• The Work and health regional data explorer presents the latest published data on employment and economic inactivity, alongside indicators relating to work and health for the nine English government office regions.
• The Violence reduction reports present data on violence related emergency hospital admissions in each Violence Reduction Unit in England.

Welsh Government releases on health and care in Wales

A report providing statistics on items prescribed by primary care practitioners in Wales and dispensed in the community (usually in community pharmacies) in the UK for April 2024 to March 2025.

A report summarising progress on improving our social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing, including a healthier Wales.

This data includes the number of children accessing the Flying Start childcare programme aimed at improving outcomes for families with children under four in some of the most disadvantaged areas of Wales.

Information on adult services, children’s services and children’s day care, as at 31 March 2025.

Data on the headcount and full-time equivalent of GPs and other staff working in general practices across Wales, as at 30 June 2025.

Report summarising data on activity and performance in the Welsh NHS for August and September 2025.

NHS expenditure by programme of care allocated based on the medical condition (ICD10) the expenditure relates to, for April 2023 to March 2024.

Things to note

Have your say on Census 2031 topics and ethnicity data

We have launched our Census 2031 topic consultation where you can tell us how you use census data and your requirements for topic data from Census 2031.

You can read our blog to find out more.

We will also be running a webinar on 12 November at 2pm. Please sign up for this on Eventbrite.

The Government Statistical Service (GSS) has also launched a consultation, asking for views on additional tick-box response options for ethnicity data. Responses will feed into a new standard for ethnicity data collection, which will be recommended for use by collectors of ethnicity data across the GSS.

If you are interested in finding out more about the ethnicity harmonisation consultation, you can sign up to attend a webinar on 17 November.

Both consultations are open until 4 February 2026, and you can respond in English or in Welsh.

If you have any questions about these consultations, please contact Census2031.engagement@ons.gov.uk

Healthcare productivity webinar

The Health Statistics Users Group (HSUG) and the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) Official Statistics Section are organising a webinar to discuss the statistical approaches used for monitoring healthcare productivity.

With speakers from the ONS, NHS England and the University of Edinburgh, the webinar will explore health care productivity, plans and analysis on NHS productivity, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on elective care backlog trends.

Please note, there is a £10 registration fee for non-RSS members.

You can register to attend on the RSS website.

User survey of respiratory syncytial virus statistics

The UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) statistics on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) maternal vaccination coverage in England and RSV vaccine coverage report in older adults for catch-up cohorts in England have a survey aimed to improve the accessibility, content, and presentation to better meet your needs.

Introducing Analysis for Action

Following a user needs exercise, the ONS’s Pandemic Preparedness Toolkit has been renamed Analysis for Action. The new name reflects the project’s broader relevance across health emergencies and its focus on supporting decision-makers with timely, relevant analysis.

This five-year initiative (2023-2028) is a collaboration between the UK, Argentina, Malawi and Nepal that is funded by Wellcome. Together, we are developing an online platform to equip national statistical offices with skills and tools to support evidence-based health emergency preparedness and response.

Want to learn more about the project or get involved? Join the Analysis for Action Global Network.

Child and maternal health profiles: indicator updating and revised presentation

On 7 October, DHSC completed its annual update of indicators related to pregnancy and birth outcomes, educational outcomes and school attendance in England. As well as adding more recent data for indicators for these topics, substantial changes were made to how the data in the child and maternal health profiles is presented.

The number of topics has been reduced, whilst sub-headings have been added and indicators adjusted to make it easier for users to find the data they are looking for. The changes are based on user feedback including from the Health and social care statistical outputs consultation and are described in greater detail in the Fingertips tool.

Potential changes to reporting frequency of the Adult Social Care monthly publication

The DHSC are considering reducing the frequency of the Adult Social Care (ASC) monthly publication from monthly to quarterly in 2026, in line with the frequency of updates to the client level data and digital social care record uptake statistics. All tables, including those based on Capacity Tracker returns, will continue to display monthly data, with three months of new data published every quarter.

If you have any feedback regarding this proposal, please contact asc.statistics@dhsc.gov.uk by Friday 14 November.

Upcoming releases

4 November

Adult smoking habits in the UK: 2024

Health visitor service delivery metrics: April 2024 to March 2025, England

Breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks after birth: April 2024 to March 2025, England

5 November

Impact of the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme on earnings and employee status, England: April 2014 to December 2022

11 November

Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme (SCAP), annual report

12 November

Statistics on smoking cessation services in Northern Ireland 2024/25

13 November

Autism statistics, October 2024 to September 2025, NHS England

Cancer survival in England, cancers diagnosed 2018 to 2022, followed up to 2023

NHS cross-border care between Wales and England: 2025

19 November

Northern Ireland HSC Vacancies September 2025

20 November

Finalised Suicide Statistics in Northern Ireland, 2024

Impact of time taken to register a death on death statistics in Northern Ireland: 2024

NHS activity and performance summary, Wales

25 November

Cancer Medicines Outcomes Programme report, Public Health Scotland

Births in Scotland, year ending 31 March 2025

26 November

Health Survey Northern Ireland: First Results 2024/25

27 November

NHS Vacancy Statistics England, April 2015 – September 2025, Experimental Statistics

Safeguarding adults, England: 2024 to 2025

Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation: 2025

Useful links

Health and care statistics

• Health and care statistics interactive tool – this compiles official statistics relating to health and care in England.