Know Your City draws together quantitative data and research to help inform our understanding of the people of Newcastle, the factors that shape their wellbeing and health and the main illnesses and diseases.
As you read Know Your City, please remember, it forms just one part of the knowledge that is used in the Newcastle Future Needs Assessment. It needs to be used alongside other information – including your own knowledge and experience and that of your colleagues or neighbours – and therefore is best used to inform conversations and discussions.
Know Your City is refreshed as new information becomes available. We therefore recommend that you return here whenever you want to look at it.
Know Your City is – by necessity – quite long. It is therefore broken down into separate parts to help you navigate it. However, we highly recommend that at least initially you make sure you are familiar with the whole content, rather than focussing straight into one particular part or section - you may find relevant and interesting information elsewhere.
Are you considering quoting any data elsewhere?
Don't forget to cite the original source (such as Census 2011) and add "accessed on Know Newcastle on [date]".
Part One: The people living, working or learning in Newcastle
This part provides an overview of the diversity of people in Newcastle and how it is likely to change over time. It gives insight into our population size by different life stages and also by different communities of identity, interest or experience. It also highlights the numbers of people coming to Newcastle for study or work. For convenience, it comes in two halves:
- the first half includes: section introduction; whole population; population by life stage; focus on the early years; focus on the school years; focus on the transition years; focus on people of working age; focus on people in later life.
- the second half includes: gender; sexual orientation; ethnicity; people not born in the UK; religion/belief; people with a disability; children with special educational needs; people with caring responsibilities; children in low-income families; children in need of help and protection; people in housing need; people known to probation because of their offending behaviour.
Part Two: Factors that shape the lives of people in Newcastle
This part follows the structure of Barton and Grant model of the determinants of health and wellbeing in our cities in order to give insights into the factors that differentially impact on the wellbeing and health of the people of Newcastle. Where possible we show how this varies for different communities of geography, identity, interest or experience. For convenience of description, we look at this framework layer by layer. However, it is worth remembering that wellbeing and health arises from the interaction of all the variables over time as people grow up, live their lives and grow old, rather than being directly attributable to any single variable.
Part Two therefore includes the following sections:
2.1 Overview: the social gradient
2.3 Natural environment (including green space; air quality)
2.4 Built environment (including homes; quality of local neighbourhoods; streets and routes)
2.5 Activities (including Learning and Attaining; Working; Not in paid employment; Not in, or seeking paid employment; Moving; Using leisure time; Helping others and volunteering; and, Taking part in influencing the future of Newcastle)
2.6 Local economy (including Markets and Sectors; Innovation, research and development; Incomes)
2.7 Community (including Social relations (at home and in the community); Feeling of safety; Crime)
2.8 Healthy lifestyles (including Smoking; Alcohol consumption; Drug use; Physical activity; Diet and nutrition; Maintaining a healthy weight)
2.9 Environmentally friendly lifestyles (includes Local Environmental Problems; Impact of lifestyles on climate change)
Part Three: A snapshot across the life course
Rather than think of wellbeing and health concerns only in terms of illness or disability in later life, we need to focus on the fact that the ‘journey’ to good health and positive wellbeing starts prenatally. Foetal and childhood development, the ageing process and our overall length of life depends on a myriad of factors (described and presented in Part Two) that impact us both positively and negatively throughout our lives. Many of these factors vary across the social gradient and result in inequalities in both development and ageing. Part Three includes the following sections:
3.1 Family building (coming soon)
(you may also be interested in Section 2.5 Activities which includes 'Learning and Attaining')
3.3 Moving into later life (including Disability free life expectancy; Healthy life expectancy)
Part Four: Illness and disease in Newcastle
This part describes the main illnesses and diseases experienced by people in Newcastle. It includes the following sections:
4.1 What people say about their wellbeing and health
4.2 What people are living with (including non-communicable diseases; communicable diseases)
4.3 What people are dying from