Nuggets 2026

Nugget of the week | morsel of the month

17th June

11% of Bolton adults played football in the last year; nationally men were ~5x more likely to have played than women. Among Bolton's children and young people, 44% had played football in the previous week; nationally there was a narrower gap than for adults with boys 2.5x more likely to have played than girls.

  • These figures are from the Active Lives Survey, which has tracked information about participation and attitudes to sport and other forms of physical activity across England since 2015.
  • From data on sports facilities on Active Places Power - Bolton has 40 artificial grass pitches, and 43 full sized grass football pitches.
  • Check out Bolton JSNA → Our Place → Lifestyles and Behaviours → Physical activity to find out more!
10th June

70% of Bolton residents' journeys are no more than 5 km/ 3 mi (up to 20 mins to cycle) - 32% are currently made by walking/ cycling. 46% of Bolton residents' journeys are no more than 2 km/ 1mi (up to 25 mins to walk, or 10 mins to cycle) - 48% of these are currently made by walking/ cycling.

  • Today the Department for Transport together with Active Travel England set out a target that 55% of journeys under 5 mi/ 8 km are walked, wheeled, or cycled by 2035.
  • Making more of our everyday journeys by active means is a particularly good way of incorporating physical activity into busy lives.
  • The 2025 GM walking and cycling index sets out a range of changes to the streeetscape that residents felt would support them travel more actively - for example 80% thought nicer places along streets to stop and rest, like more benches trees and shelters, would support them to walk/ wheel more; 58% support building more cycle paths physically separated from traffic and pedestrians, even when this would mean less room for other road traffic.
  • Check out Bolton JSNA → Our Place → Lifestyles and behaviours → Physical activity → Active travel to find out more
3rd June

Comparing life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, Bolton women might expect 26.1 years lived in poor health, and Bolton men 22.3 years.

  • Those who live the longest often have the shortest period of ill health. People living in the most deprived areas have shorter lives and longer periods of preventable ill health.
  • These figures are from OHID's health of the region data explorer. This gives an overview of key measures of health and wellbeing at region and local authority level.
  • You can find this, and other resources giving you an overview of Bolton's health and wellbeing on Bolton JSNA → Bolton in brief
27th May - Morsel of the month - May

7% of Bolton adults feel lonely 'often or always' - similar to England as a whole. However this does vary, particularly by age.

  • As a reminder - the morsel is a bit more in depth (but still brief) look at a particular topic.
  • This month we're looking at loneliness.
  • Check out the morsel and Bolton JSNA → Our health and wellbeing → Mental health and wellbeing to find out more.
20th May

There is a cluster of high heat risk areas located around Derby Street, where a number of primary schools and GP practices are located.

  • Greater Manchester is increasingly at risk of extreme heat events due to the climate crisis. These rising temperatures pose significant health risks, particularly for vulnerable populations such as older adults, children, and those with pre-existing health conditions. Critical assets such as transport networks and healthcare facilities are also at risk from extreme heat.
  • Land surface temperature is influenced by a range of environmental factors, most notably: distance from bodies of water (lakes, rivers, etc); distance from vegetation (parks, forests, etc); proximity to urban areas (darker surfaces absorb more heat e.g. roads, buildings).
  • This information is from Greater Manchester Climate risk mapping. Check it out and Our Place → Climate emergency → Climate adaptation to see more data and research on the current picture and how we can all do our bit to reduce the risk of climate change and its impact.
13th May

New data shows 51% of Bolton adults are classed as 'physically active' while 29% are 'physically inactive'. Both these figures continue to be worse than for England and the North West as a whole.

  • Regular physical activity gives a range of physical and mental health benefits, such as reducing the risk of disease, managing existing conditions, and developing and maintaining physical and mental function. It is never too late to start being active. Generally, the more time spent being active, the greater the health benefits, but the gains per extra active minute are especially great for those currently least active.
  • These figures come from OHID's Fingertips obesity, physical activity & nutrution profile which also includes figures for young people - Bolton children's physical activity is at a similar level to England and NW.
  • The data originally comes from Active Lives survey which you can explore in more depth, for adults and children, using active lives online. From this you can answer questions such as: what are the most common activities among Bolton adults; how confident do Bolton young people feel when being active; how active are Bolton girls inside or outside school hours.
  • Check out Bolton JSNA → Our place → Lifestyles and behaviours → Physical activity to find out more
6th May

77% of Bolton residents feel hopeful for the future, and 64% feel they can live a good life in Greater Manchester.

  • Males are more likely to say they feel hopeful (79%) while females are more likely to say they can live a good life (72%)
  • These figures are from the GM residents survey. The survey runs every quarter, and asks about a broad range of topics from housing and health, to neighbourhood and community, and concerns about climate change.
  • You can find overall reports from the survey on the GMCA website, and members of Bolton Research And Intelligence Network (BRAIN) have access to the login portal to do custom analyses.
  • To find out more, check out Bolton JSNA → Explore more → Useful websites → GM residents survey
29th April - Morsel of the month - April

This week we have our April morsel of the month!

22nd April

Bolton has: 49 main GP practices; 77 care homes; 146 schools

  • These figures are from the NHS Organisation Data Service - a national service for managing reference information about organisations that are involved in health and social care in England and beyond.
  • Sometimes it's difficult to make sure our lists of organisations we might work with or want to are up to date, and much easier if someone else does the hard work for us!
  • The ODS has a search and download tool or an API which you can plug your dashboards straight into, keeping them constantly updated.
  • Check out Bolton JSNA → Explore more → Useful websites → NHS Organisation Data Service to find out more!
15th April

45% of the Royal Bolton Hospital's patients were admitted for elective treatment, & 56% for emergency care. When admitted to hospital for an elective stay, it was to the Royal Bolton Hospital for 71% of Bolton residents.

  • These figures come from OHID's NHS acute (hospital) trust catchment populations dashboard, which was updated this week.
  • Hospitals don't have geographically defined boundaries for their services like some services, such as council provided social care do. The catchment populations give estimates of people who are using each hospital or have the potential to.
  • These populations can be useful for those working in hospital trusts, and also for those working with hospitals, for understanding the people before they attend hospital and what health promoting assets they have access to near their home.
  • Check out Our health and wellbeing → Ill health → Health services to find out more.
8th April

Bolton 021D (in Rumworth North) and Bolton 016C (in central Bolton) have the highest vulnerability scores for heat

  • These figures come from the Socio Spatial Heat Vulnerability Index
  • How disadvantaged an individual or group will be by climate change depends not just on how likely they are to experience an event (such as a heatwave) and how severe it is, but also by how it impacts them. 'Social vulnerability' is a matter of how external events convert into wellbeing losses.
  • The score produced is a combination of 5 factors:
    • sensitivity – characteristics linked to personal factors, e.g. age and health; enhanced exposure – characteristics of physical environments that tend to enhance or offset exposure;
    • ability to prepare – characteristics that tend to encourage or discourage anticipatory actions being taken;
    • ability to respond – characteristics that explain the extent to which action can be taken to avoid harm during an event; and
    • ability to recover – characteristics that help or prevent the process of returning to normal afterwards.
  • Check out the ClimateJust maps and Bolton JSNA → Our Place → Climate emergency to find out more
1st April - Morsel of the month - March

This month's morsel looks at internal migration - an annual dataset that looks at people moving house around the UK - who is moving and where to.

25th March

New updated deprivation explorer available!

  • Deprivation is "unmet needs caused by a lack of resources of all kinds". It's a really important concept for us in Bolton: there are substantial health inequalities between people from different deprivation groups, and 46% of our residents live in an area that is among the most deprived 10% in England. It is measured by the English Indices of Deprivation (IoD).
  • MHCLG has recently updated their local deprivation explorer to make it easier to use! You can now search by postcode; use interactive maps showing the overall Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) together with the specific topic-based domains that underlie it; and download a dataset that's either everything or just what you need.
  • Check out Our People → Deprivation to find out more
18th March

According to the Active Lives survey, 51% of Bolton adults have done gardening in the last year.

  • Access to green spaces (especially in urban environments such as Bolton) has been linked to enhanced mental wellbeing, increased physical activity, and associated health benefits. Natural England has recently released new guidance on how to evaluate the health impacts of outdoors activities. This gives practical suggestions on the kind of things you might want to measure, and where the health impacts would most likely be felt for an outdoors based project.
  • It's accompanied by a brief infographic showing where the main health benefits occur and links to further sources.
  • If this sounds like it might be of use, there's a webinar on 15th April launching the resources where you can find out more.
  • Also check out Our Place → Built and natural environment → Natural environment for links to this resource and more.
11th March

12% of Bolton adults smoke, down from 24% in 2011

  • This week we're looking at smoking, to coincide with no smoking day. Smoking is the most important cause of preventable ill health and premature mortality in the UK.
  • Smoking is a major risk factor for many diseases, such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart disease. It is also one of the main causes of health inequalities in England, with the harm concentrated in more disadvantaged communities and groups.
  • In England as a whole, 49% of people attempting to quit use nothing as support, and 33% use vapes as support. Future health concerns is the most common trigger to quit (57%) followed by the cost of smoking (36%).
  • Check out Our place → Lifestyles and behaviours → Smoking to find out more
  • Check out Let's keep Bolton Moving for support on stopping smoking in Bolton
4th March

Thinking ahead to what you might be doing over the weekend... Across GM, 79% of residents are confident using the internet to shop online; 78% to get in touch with someone or use social media; 76% to find information for their leisure time such as cinema, live music, theatre, museums; 77% to watch tv or other video online.

  • Confidence levels are a little lower but still high for some other activities: 71% are confident in looking online for information on government sites, 71% to apply for government or council services; 64% to apply for benefits.
  • These figures are from the GM residents survey, which covers a varying range of topics and goes out to residents across Greater Manchester (including Bolton) quarterly.
  • Go to Explore more → Useful websites → GM residents survey to find out more. Members of Bolton Research And Intelligence Network (BRAIN) get access to the login only portal to examine the data in more depth.
25th February - morsel of the month - February

Welcome to the latest Bolton JSNA morsel of the month! As a reminder, these are longer than the usual nuggets but still compact to fit into your busy lives. This one builds on the 'Bolton in Brief' page with an overview of some key figures for the borough

  • The morsel is structured under the main JSNA themes of Our people; Our place; & Our Health and wellbeing.
  • The morsel is provided as a document and a usual morsel style infographic.
  • Check out Bolton in brief to find out more
18th February

Is your street or neighbourhood one that supports you to be healthy? How would you know?

  • There’s no definitive list, but a healthy street will incorporate features such as: feeling safe and welcoming, pleasant to walk and cycle along and to cross, things to see and do like nature or art, shade and shelter to protect from the weather, place to stop and rest, not too noisy.
  • Healthy streets build into healthy neighbourhoods: with good quality affordable housing, connection to nature, easy access to local businesses and jobs, a sense of identity to the place and opportunities for play and wonder.
  • Check out Our Place → Built and natural environment → Neighbourhood design → How healthy is my street? Where there's a collection of tools for seeing how healthy your street is, many are designed for community members to use. Why not try one out on a street or neighbourhood near you?
11th February

Bolton's overall poorest air quality is in LSOA (a small administrative area) Bolton 034D in Kearsley & Stoneclough (near to M61 J2), while the best is in Bolton 020E, in Lostock & Ladybridge.

  • These figures come from the Indices of Deprivation 2025 underlying indicators. Air quality forms part of the Living environment outdoor subdomain.
  • The underlying indicators tell us about estimated levels of 4 air pollutants and how they compare with World Health Organization safe levels. For us in Greater Manchester, Nitrogen dioxide and small particulates are highest.
  • In Bolton 034D, Nitrogen dioxide levels are nearly twice the WHO limit (1.91x) and small particulate matter (PM2.5) is nearly 1.5 times the WHO limit (1.49x).
  • Check out the following pages to find out more: Our place → Climate emergency → Air quality (and see a map); Our people → Deprivation
4th February

23% of Bolton parents experience material deprivation (22% at GM); 30% of working age adults (31% at GM); and 15% of pensioners (19% at GM).

  • You may have recently seen the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on UK poverty 2026 in the news, which has found a deepening of poverty. Tackling poverty is a key priority for us. We only have nationally produced Bolton estimates for where low income and poverty affects children.
  • However the GM residents survey covers the related topic of 'material deprivaiton' - a poverty measure focused on everyday experience, looking at whether residents are enjoying a minimum acceptable standard of living. The figures above are from the GM residents survey.
  • Check out Our people → Deprivation → Poverty to find out more about poverty.
  • Check out Explore more → Useful websites → GM residents survey to find out more about the GM residents survey. Remember members of BRAIN (Bolton Research And Intelligence Network) get access to the GM residents survey data portal for custom crosstabs and data download!
28th January - morsel of the month - January

As a reminder - this is like the JSNA nugget of the week, but at the end of the month, and a bit more in-depth on a particular topic (but still brief).

21st January

The average house price for buyers in Bolton is £200,000 and the average monthly private rent in Bolton is £872. Both are lower than the North West average, making Bolton a relatively affordable place to live.

14th January

Bolton life expectancy at birth continues recovery following covid dip - but still lower than England

  • This week's nugget looks at life expectancy - this is an important indicator of overall population health, and inequalities in health.
  • Bolton's life expectancy at birth (2022-24) is 76.9 for males, and 81.4 for females.
  • The Covid-19 pandemic caused a sharp fall in life expectancy "the magnitude of which has not been seen since World War II", this was seen both in Bolton and England as a whole.
  • Since then we've seen some recovery which is positive, but there's still more to be done as our life expectancy remains around 2 years lower than for England as a whole and with inequalities across the borough.
  • Check out Bolton JSNA → Our health and wellbeing → Life expectancy to find out more
7th January

72% of Bolton adults report high happiness, and 76% high life satisfaction Wellbeing is about feeling good and functioning well. Our mental health influences our physical health, as well as our capability to lead a healthy lifestyle and to manage and recover from physical health conditions.

  • Evidence suggests there are 5 steps you can take to improve your mental health and wellbeing. Trying these things could help you feel more positive and able to get the most out of life: Connect with other people; Be physically active; Learn new skills; Give to others; Pay attention to the present moment.
  • These figures are from OHID's Adult mental health and wellbeing profile. Find this and more on mental health and wellbeing on the JSNA website: Our health and wellbeing → Mental health and wellbeing