Standing view · health · Sunderland
deteriorating, held with established confidence, formed on 5 October 2026 from movements in 2025.
Health measures in Sunderland have been worsening. Adults who are obese was 42.6 in 2024/25 and recorded as unfavourable against the usual pattern for its year, with hospital admissions for COPD, aged 35 and over, per 100,000 at 759.98 in 2023/24 and adults who are physically active at 59.27. Running the other way, adults who smoke was 9.45 in 2024 and deaths before age 75, per 100,000 423.87 in 2024 and 406.79 in 2025, all favourable. The obesity rate at that level, moving the wrong way, is what carries the view.
A view is formed only where the evidence names a figure you can check. Each movement listed as a reason had to be large enough to matter and distinctive in at least one way — unusual against this area's own history, unusual against comparable areas, or sustained over several periods. A movement shared with peers counts for less, because it says something about the country rather than about Sunderland. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Adults who are obese | 2024/25 | deteriorating |
| Adults who smoke | 2024 | improving |
| Deaths before age 75, per 100,000 | 2024 | improving |
| Deaths before age 75, per 100,000 | 2025 | improving |
These figures carry no defensible direction of their own: a rising house price is good news to an owner and bad news to someone trying to buy, so we do not score one as an improvement. They are shown because they are part of the picture, and they did not decide the view above.
| Measure | Period | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Hospital admissions for COPD, aged 35 and over, per 100,000 | 2023/24 | — |
| Adults who are physically active | 2024/25 | — |