As always, we welcome comments, feedback and suggestions.
Photo source: Bury St Edmunds Hack event for the Annual Public Health Report 2025
We welcome your photos of Suffolk to use in a future blog!
Email us at: knowledgeandIntelligence@suffolk.gov.uk
Annual Public Health Report 2025
The 2025 Annual Public Health Report (APHR) has now launched, bringing a new and innovative focus: Youth Social Action. This year’s report positions young people not as consultees, but as co‑creators of healthier, fairer, more connected communities across Suffolk.
The report celebrates the creativity, determination and leadership of young people across the county, many of whom shaped the content directly through hack events, storytelling, and lived‑experience insights.
What the 2025 report is about
The theme is clear and unapologetically future‑focused:
Youth Social Action: Empowering young people to shape a better future.
The APHR highlights how social action strengthens wellbeing, strengthens community resilience, and creates long‑term public health benefits. It aligns closely with Suffolk County Council’s commitment to youth voice—including signing the Power of Youth Charter in April 2025.
Partnerships feature strongly. This year’s report was supported by organisations such as Volunteering Matters, along with young ambassadors across Suffolk who contributed interviews, stories, and case studies.
A standout shift for 2025 is the report’s video‑first format. Rather than relying on long text documents, the APHR uses short films and youth‑led storytelling to bring public health themes to life—from local creativity to tackling social barriers. The launch event at Ipswich Town Football Club brought this approach to life, with young people taking centre stage.
Why Youth Social Action matters
- Wellbeing gains: A sense of purpose, belonging, connection.
- Community impact: Young people identify practical solutions to local challenges.
- Equity and empowerment: Social action amplifies voices that are too often unheard.
- System change: shifting from isolated youth activities to structural support for youth action.
What next?
The launch is part of a programme that will support young people aged 11–20 (and up to 25 with additional needs) to design and lead projects that make a positive difference in their local areas.
Read more
You can view the full Annual Public Health Report 2025 – Youth Social Action and Public Health online now.
View the profile and our other JSNA products using the JSNA searchable index below:
Recent national publications:
- All-cause and cause-specific mortality by sexual orientation The ONS have published all-cause and cause-specific mortality by sexual orientation in England and Wales for the first time -Census 2021 included a voluntary question on this topic. There was a 1.3 times greater risk of death from any cause during the study period for people identifying with an LGB+ orientation ("gay or lesbian", "bisexual" or "other sexual orientation") compared with those identifying as straight or heterosexual; the age-standardised rate was 982.8 per 100,000 people for the LGB+ group, compared with 752.6 per 100,000 people for the straight or heterosexual group.
- Inclusion health data and intelligence resource for England was published for the first time in January 2026. The resource contains a summary of statistics already in the public domain and provides supporting information for organisations and networks to facilitate informed decision-making. It collates numerical population data into one place and summarises academic research and published material to highlight the unique challenges these populations can face.
- Drug misuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2025: An overview of the extent and trends of illicit drug use. Data are from the Crime Survey for England and Wales. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated that 8.7% of people aged 16 to 59 years (around 2.9 million people) reported using any drug in the last 12 months for the year ending (YE) March 2025; there was no statistically significant change compared with YE March 2024.
This month the JSNA workplan is focused on:
- Finalising a healthy pregnancy profile
- Drafting the Mental Health Needs Assessment
- We are planning annual updates to our core infographics on the website
- Scoping new profiles on men's health, end of life, alcohol, substance misuse, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), and respiratory health
The Suffolk Observatory
The Suffolk Observatory contains all Suffolk’s vital statistics. It is the one-stop-shop for data, statistics and reports all about Suffolk provided by a variety of organisations.
Through data, reports and analysis, the Suffolk Observatory provides a comprehensive picture of the county and is a great source for useful facts and figures that will help you write reports and presentations, inform strategic and business planning, prepare funding applications or support academic research.
Take a look at the SODA reports page for all the recent publications by the Suffolk Office of Data and Analytics.
