This is a publication on maternity activity in English NHS hospitals. This report examines data relating to delivery and birth episodes in 2017-18, and the booking appointments for these deliveries. This annual publication covers the financial year ending March 2018. Data is included from both the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data warehouse and the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS). HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances for patients admitted to NHS hospitals in England. The HES data used in this publication are called 'delivery episodes'. The MSDS collects records of each stage of the maternity service care pathway in NHS-funded maternity services, and includes information not recorded in HES. The MSDS is a maturing, national-level dataset. As the number of deliveries recorded in the MSDS is only 78 per cent of the number of deliveries recorded in HES, the partial coverage of the MSDS both geographically and over time means that figures from the MSDS should not be interpreted as England level figures for 2017-18. This publication shows the number of HES delivery episodes during the period, with a number of breakdowns including by method of onset of labour, delivery method and place of delivery. It also shows the number of MSDS deliveries recorded during the period, with breakdowns including the baby's first feed type and the smoking status of women in early pregnancy. The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care. This document will also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England.

In January 2025, the United Kingdom had more than 55.9 million Facebook users. Four years before, in September 2020, the number of Facebook users in the UK stood at 45.85, showing a 21.9 percent growth in audience size in four years. Facebook remains the leading social network Despite a recent history of controversies and user privacy breaches - not least of which being the Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2018 - Facebook has managed to remain the top social network in the UK. As of July 2024, the platform had a 62.8 percent market share, almost six times over that of X, formerly known as Twitter. Besides being the most popular social network across all age groups, Facebook and its subsidiary WhatsApp report the highest use among those aged between 26 and 35 years old. Role in political advertising Facebook has also proved to be a lucrative advertising platform, having generated 22.7 percent of online ad revenue in the UK in 2018. This was forecast to increase to 28 percent in 2021, placing the social network second to Google within the online advertising sector. Unsurprisingly, political groups aiming to capitalize on this reach have taken to large-scale advertising on Facebook. In 2019, 3.31 million euros was spent on targeted political advertising in the UK alone, the second-highest reported figure in Europe.  

This report presents information on obesity, physical activity and diet drawn together from a variety of sources for England. More information can be found in the source publications which contain a wider range of data and analysis. Each section provides an overview of key findings, as well as providing links to relevant documents and sources. Some of the data have been published previously by NHS Digital. A data visualisation tool (link provided within the key facts) allows users to select obesity related hospital admissions data for any Local Authority (as contained in the data tables), along with time series data from 2013/14. Regional and national comparisons are also provided. The report includes information on: Obesity related hospital admissions, including obesity related bariatric surgery. Obesity prevalence. Physical activity levels. Walking and cycling rates. Prescriptions items for the treatment of obesity. Perception of weight and weight management. Food and drink purchases and expenditure. Fruit and vegetable consumption. Key facts cover the latest year of data available: Hospital admissions: 2018/19 Adult obesity: 2018 Childhood obesity: 2018/19 Adult physical activity: 12 months to November 2019 Children and young people's physical activity: 2018/19 academic year

The economy was seen by 51 percent of people in the UK as one of the top three issues facing the country in March 2025. The ongoing cost of living crisis afflicting the UK, driven by high inflation, is still one of the main concerns of Britons. Health has generally been the second most important issue since early 2022, possibly due to NHS staffing problems, and increasing demand for health services, which have plunged the National Health Service into a deep crisis. From late 2022 onwards, immigration emerged as the third main concern for British people, just ahead of the environment for much of 2023 and as of the most recent month, the second most important issue for voters. Labour's popularity continues to sink in 2025 Despite winning the 2024 general election with a strong majority, the new Labour government has had its share of struggles since coming to power. Shortly after taking office, the approval rating for Labour stood at -2 percent, but this fell throughout the second half of 2024, and by January 2025 had sunk to a new low of -47 percent. Although this was still higher than the previous government's last approval rating of -56 percent, it is nevertheless a severe review from the electorate. Among several decisions from the government, arguably the least popular was the government withdrawing winter fuel payments. This state benefit, previously paid to all pensioners, is now only paid to those on low incomes, with millions of pensioners not receiving this payment in winter 2024. Sunak's pledges fail to prevent defeat in 2024 With an election on the horizon, and the Labour Party consistently ahead in the polls, addressing voter concerns directly was one of the best chances the Conservatives had of staying in power in 2023. At the start of that year, Rishi Sunak attempted to do this by setting out his five pledges for the next twelve months; halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce national debt, cut NHS waiting times, and stop small boats. A year later, Sunak had at best only partial success in these aims. Although the inflation rate fell, economic growth was weak and even declined in the last two quarters of 2023, although it did return to growth in early 2024. National debt was only expected to fall in the mid to late 2020s, while the trend of increasing NHS waiting times did not reverse. Small boat crossings were down from 2022, but still higher than in 2021 or 2020. .

The BSA 2018 report, including Key Findings, is available from on the NatCen BSA website:

Curtice, J., Clery, E., Perry, J., Phillips M. and Rahim, N. (eds.) (2019),
https://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/latest-report/british-social-attitudes-36/key-findings.aspx">British Social Attitudes: The 36th Report, London: The National Centre for Social Research

Latest edition information
For the second edition (February 2021) four equivalised income variables have been added to the dataset.

Electoral registrations for parliamentary and local government elections as recorded in electoral registers for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

There were 252,545 violent crime offences recorded by the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police Forces in London in 2023/24 an increase when compared with the previous reporting year. From a low of 186,488 violent crimes in 2015/16, violent crime has increased in almost every year. This reflects a pattern of increasing violent crime replicated across England and Wales as a whole, with a peak of 2.1 million offences reported in 2022/23. Overall offences also rising The overall crime figures for London also show a trend of increasing crime in the UK capital. In 2015/16 for example, there were 743,728 crimes recorded in London, compared to 938,020 in 2023/24. This follows a similar pattern seen in the rest of the United Kingdom, which has witnessed an uptick in crime after reaching historic lows in the mid-2010s. In 2013/14 for example, there were approximately 62 crimes per 100,000 people in England and Wales, compared with 89.7 in 2023/24. Police budgets rising again Due to the austerity policies enacted by UK governments in the 2010s, the amount the UK government spent on the police was effectively frozen between 2013/14 and 2016/17. This policy has since been reversed, with the overall UK police budget reaching 25.3 billion pounds in 2022/23. The amount budgeted for the Metropolitan Police by the Mayor of London for 2023/24 was 4.53 billion British pounds, a significant increase on the 3.33 billion budgeted in 2018/19.

There were 1,248 firearm offences recorded in London 2023/24, compared with 1,085 in 2022/23. Compared with previous years, there were far fewer offences in 2020/21 and 2021/22, which may have been due to the lockdowns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is also reflected in London's overall crime rate, which fell from 102.4 crimes per 1,000 people in 2019/20, to 83.3 in 2020/21, before increasing to 92.8 in 2021/22, and 105.8 in the most recent reporting year. Firearm homicides rare in the UK The United Kingdom has some of the strictest gun laws in the world, resulting in relatively low levels of gun crime and firearm homicides. In 2022/23 just 4.9 percent of homicides in England and Wales were the result of shootings, compared with 85.7 percent in the United States in 2021. The most common method of killing for homicides in England and Wales was by far the use of a sharp instrument at 41.4 percent of homicides in the 2022/23 reporting year. London police budget rising In 2023/24 the budget for policing in London reached 4.53 billion British pounds, compared with 4.44 billion pounds in the previous financial year. This is the sixth-consecutive year of London's police budget increasing, compared with the period between 2013/14 and 2018/19, when it remained around 3.3 billion pounds, and was actually smaller than in 2012/13 when the budget was 3.62 billion. These budget increases have occurred alongside a recruitment drive for police officers. In 2023, there were 35,900 police officers in London, compared with just 31,087 in 2018.

Out of all ethnic groups, pupils from the White Irish and Chinese ethnic groups were most likely to meet the expected standard in reading in 2018/19.

The Health Survey for England series was designed to monitor trends in the nation's health; estimating the proportion of people in England who have specified health conditions, and the prevalence of risk factors and behaviours associated with these conditions. The surveys provide regular information that cannot be obtained from other sources. The surveys have been carried out since 1994 by the Joint Health Surveys Unit of NatCen Social Research and the Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL. Each survey in the series includes core questions, e.g. about alcohol and smoking, and measurements (such as blood pressure, height and weight, and analysis of blood and saliva samples), and modules of questions on topics that vary from year to year. The trend tables show data for available years between 1993 and 2016 for adults (defined as age 16 and over) and for children. The survey samples cover the population living in private households in England. In 2016 the sample contained 8,011 adults and 2,056 children and 5,049 adults and 1,117 children had a nurse visit. We would very much like your feedback about whether some proposed changes to the publications would be helpful and if the publications meet your needs. This will help us shape the design of future publications to ensure they remain informative and useful. Please answer our reader feedback survey on Citizen Space which is open until 18 June 2018.

The monthly house price index in London has been steadily increasing in recent years. In June 2024, the index reached 129.9, up from 129 a year before. Nevertheless, prices widely varied in different London boroughs, with Kensington and Chelsea being the priciest boroughs for an apartment purchase.

This report contains results from the latest survey of secondary school pupils in England in years 7 to 11 (mostly aged 11 to 15), focusing on smoking, drinking and drug use. It covers a range of topics including prevalence, habits, attitudes, and wellbeing. This survey is usually run every two years, however, due to the impact that the Covid pandemic had on school opening and attendance, it was not possible to run the survey as initially planned in 2020; instead it was delivered in the 2021 school year. In 2021 additional questions were also included relating to the impact of Covid. They covered how pupil's took part in school learning in the last school year (September 2020 to July 2021), and how often pupil's met other people outside of school and home. Results of analysis covering these questions have been presented within parts of the report and associated data tables. It includes this summary report showing key findings, excel tables with more detailed outcomes, technical appendices and a data quality statement. An anonymised record level file of the underlying data on which users can carry out their own analysis will be made available via the UK Data Service later in 2022 (see link below).

In the 3 years to March 2021, black households were most likely out of all ethnic groups to have a weekly income of under £600.