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Overview

North West · Metropolitan district

St. Helens

2026/27 view

St. Helens · ONS E08000013

Financial position as at 2026/27 Q1 quarter end

View sources
PEOPLE AND PLACE

Population and community profile

Latest official statistics
Population 188,861 2024
North West region 7,737,414
St. Helens represents 2.44% of the region's population
Five-year population change
+7,320 residents ↑ 4.0%
2019: 181,541 residents2020: 182,102 residents2021: 183,394 residents2022: 185,001 residents2023: 186,929 residents2024: 188,861 residents
St. Helens +4.0%
North West +5.1%
England +4.3%
Growth context

St. Helens's population grew over five years. Its change was 1.0 percentage points below the North West and broadly in line with England.

2019–2024 ONS mid-year estimates
Population estimates and labour-market measures from ONS/Nomis.Official profile
AIR QUALITY

How clean is the air?

Long-term particulate pollution across the council area, alongside measurements from local UK-AIR monitoring stations.

Defra 2,024
POPULATION-WEIGHTED ANNUAL MEAN

Fine particulate matter

6.7 µg/m³

PM2.5 · 2,024

Human-related sources 6.2 µg/m³
Other sources 0.5 µg/m³
Modelled population-weighted annual concentration across the local authority area. This is not a live sensor reading.
LONG-TERM TREND

PM2.5 over time

40.4%
11.3 6.7
2011: 11.30 µg/m³ 2012: 10.56 µg/m³ 2013: 10.78 µg/m³ 2014: 10.26 µg/m³ 2015: 8.22 µg/m³ 2016: 9.05 µg/m³ 2017: 7.95 µg/m³ 2018: 8.38 µg/m³ 2019: 8.77 µg/m³ 2020: 7.10 µg/m³ 2021: 7.49 µg/m³ 2022: 7.98 µg/m³ 2023: 6.95 µg/m³ 2024: 6.74 µg/m³
2011 2024
Since 2011 ↓ 40.4%
5 years ↓ 23.2%
10 years ↓ 34.4%
CURRENT MONITORING

Latest station measurement

UK-AIR
PM10 17.4 µg/m³
Provisional
St Helens Linkway Automatic Urban and Rural Monitoring Network (AURN); UK Urban NO2 Network · Urban Traffic Latest measurement: 2026-09-22 23:00:00+01

This is a measurement from an individual monitoring station and should not be interpreted as the current concentration across the whole council area.

HEALTH IMPACT

Particulate air pollution

5.1% of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution
2024 Not compared

This OHID measure estimates the mortality burden associated with particulate air pollution. It is a health-impact measure, not a pollution concentration.

Annual PM2.5 is Defra Pollution Climate Mapping data. Monitoring readings are station-specific UK-AIR measurements and may be provisional. Defra source