Population Estimates for Public Health

Population Estimates for Public Health

Estimates of local populations are important for local health needs assessments and planning.  Demographic patterns and changes are important in themselves in terms of reflecting demand for services.  Estimates also provide the denominators for the calculation of rates of health outcomes and health-related events.  On this page we provide the most frequently used population estimates used in public health intelligence in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Local authority level estimates

Office for National Statistics (ONS) release mid-year population estimates annually for upper and lower tier local authorities.  Our local tool provides summarises the estimates for Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and England, by age, age group and sex, for 2001-2016.

CCC PHI ONS LA Population Estimates

Ward level estimates

ONS release small area population estimates for wards but the releases currently available do not reflect the latest ward configurations for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.  The estimates provided here are calculated by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Public Health Intelligence team based on ONS output area estimates and ONS output area to ward lookup files.  The local method essentially replicates the ONS methodology to provide estimates for current ward configurations for 2002 to 2015.

ONS Ward Estimates tool

Population forecasts

Cambridgeshire County Council’s Research Group produce local policy-led population forecasts which take into account planned housing developments and other local assumptions about population change.  2015-based forecasts up to 2036 can be found here

Population by ethnic group

The best source of population data by ethnic group remains the 2011 Census. Detailed analysis of this can be found on our Census page.