Standing view · health · Hastings
improving, held with established confidence, formed on 31 August 2026 from movements in 2025.
Adult smoking in Hastings fell to 9.3% in 2023, while the suicide rate rose to 18.19 per 100,000 residents over the three years to 2024. The two measures moved in opposite directions and neither has a second reading published here, so the direction of health in the borough is not established. The suicide rate is pooled over three years because annual counts at this level are too small to publish, and it is high by the standards of the measure.
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 Hastings. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Adults who smoke | 2023 | improving |
| Suicide rate, per 100,000 | 2022 - 24 | deteriorating |