Neighbourhood-level initiatives in Birmingham, England

This city profile is part of a series of ten, exploring how cities around the world are addressing health inequalities. Read the full report and sign up to receive more insights from us.

About Birmingham

Birmingham is the UK’s second largest city, but only a fifth of London’s size. Despite its small size, it has similar density rates to London, with 4,200 people per square kilometre. Birmingham is also racially diverse and projected to become a majority-minority city within the next decade. Overall, there is a young age structure with 64% of the population of working age and only 13% aged 65 and older.

Birmingham is the third most deprived English city, with 43% of the population living in areas with high rates of deprivation. Growing wealth inequality in the city is further exacerbating existing social disparities. The highest-paid full-time workers earn 6.5 times as much as the lowest-paid, compared to 3.5 as much nationally (2020 figures). The distribution of personal wealth is even more unequal, with the wealthiest 10% having 850 times the wealth of the bottom 10%.

Like London, Birmingham benefits from a comparatively high level of healthcare provision compared to similar cities in other countries, but equitable access to healthcare and the determinants of health and wellbeing remain a challenge. Compared to Birmingham’s most affluent residents, those living in the most deprived communities have lower life expectancies, are three times more likely to be admitted to hospital for treatable conditions, and three times more likely to have a long-term health condition. These disparities are compounded when race is factored in: Black Caribbean residents make up 17% of all in-patients, four times more than expected based on population proportions.