Public Health Liverpool

Live well

Living well is essential in helping us manage our health and maintain our independence. Unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, such as smoking or drinking alcohol, determine the burden of disease and illness within a population. Some of the risk factors for the city are highlighted below.

Key facts

  • Smoking prevalence in Liverpool has fallen from 22.3% in 2011 to 11.9% in 2024 and is not significantly different to England (10.4%).
  • In 2023/24, 30.1% of adults aged 18+ years said they were obese which is significantly above the England average (26.5%).
  • In Liverpool, only one in four (24.5%) adults consumed the recommended ‘5-a-day’ fruit and vegetables in 2023/24, significantly lower than England at 31.3%.
  • Around 64.3% of adults (aged 19+) are physically active (undertake a minimum of 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of moderate physical activity per week), which is significantly below the national rate (67.4%).
  • In 2023/24, hospital admissions for alcohol-specific conditions in the city were 1.9 times higher than the national average with around 4,971 per year, while Liverpool’s premature mortality rate for liver disease was 1.5 times above the national rate.
  • Drug misuse is a significant cause of premature mortality in the UK. In Liverpool around 57 people die from drug misuse each year. Liverpool’s rate of 13.1 per 100,000 is 2.4 times higher than the national average (5.5 per 100,000) and the 3rd highest in England.
  • There were 5,309 new Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) diagnoses in Liverpool in 2024 and our diagnosis rate of 1,054 per 100,000 population is 1.7 times the national rate (632 per 100,000).
  • There are 11,787 adults newly diagnosed with depression (2.5% compared to 1.5% nationally), while the underlying trend is significantly increasing.
  • There are 3,502 people (0.6%) with a learning disability which is in line with England (0.6%).

Detailed needs assessments

The following health needs assessments have been published in relation to living well:

Local strategies

Liverpool information

Department of Health & Social Care