SLOUGH has ranked highly in a new index of the unhealthiest areas of England.

The district ranked low in the Office for National Statistics' Health Index, which measures people's life outcomes, lifestyle and environment to rank areas on how healthy they are.

Slough has been ranked in 85th place out of 149 areas in the list, far more unhealthy than the healthiest placed in England - Wokingham - but not as bad as the nation's most unhealthy area which is Blackpool.

Slough Observer:

ALSO READ: Listed: The 'resilient and amazing' schools and teachers during the pandemic

The district was scored 98.4 on the index, way behind Wokingham on 110.1 but higher than Blackpool's 86.4.

Slough scored lowest for Healthy Eating with a score of 74.6, followed by physical activity at 74.1.

The town also scored badly for crime, household overcrowding and road traffic volumes.

For Healthy People the score was 100.1, with the district scoring good for mental health and low self-harm levels but performed poorly for avoidable deaths (90.8)

READ MORE: Coronavirus deaths by postcode across Slough

The area where Slough scored worst was on Healthy Lives, scored very badly for smoking, diabetes, child poverty, alcohol misuse and healthy eating.

The ONS Health Index incorporates measurement not only of health outcomes, but also of factors which are known to contribute to health at both individual and collective levels, and collates data from 2018 to give these new figures.

Dr Jonathan Pearson-Stuttard, head of LCP’s Health Analytics team, said: “This data is being published at a crucial time for the nation’s health as the NHS is stretched to deal with the impact of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The numbers reveal clear and substantial differences across England and should be a wake-up call to the Government to deliver on its manifesto pledge to level up regional inequalities. While there is some encouragement to be had from slight improvements in measures related to wellbeing and mortality, these have been cancelled out by worsening mental and physical health morbidity. These may have deteriorated further as a result of Covid-19.

“Being able to identify the components that account for the variations in the index over time and across populations, both by geography and deprivation, provides the opportunity to take a data-driven approach to investing in communities and build back better in 2021.”