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Overview

North West · Metropolitan district

Wirral

2026/27 view

Wirral · ONS E08000015

Financial position as at 2026/27 Q1 quarter end

View sources
PEOPLE AND PLACE

Population and community profile

Latest official statistics
Population 328,873 2024
North West region 7,737,414
Wirral represents 4.25% of the region's population
Five-year population change
+8,141 residents ↑ 2.5%
2019: 320,732 residents2020: 320,249 residents2021: 320,631 residents2022: 322,674 residents2023: 325,583 residents2024: 328,873 residents
Wirral +2.5%
North West +5.1%
England +4.3%
Growth context

Wirral's population grew over five years. Its change was 2.5 percentage points below the North West and 1.7 percentage points below 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

5.9 µg/m³

PM2.5 · 2,024

Human-related sources 5.4 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

39.0%
9.7 5.7
2011: 9.72 µg/m³ 2012: 8.97 µg/m³ 2013: 9.26 µg/m³ 2014: 9.04 µg/m³ 2015: 7.18 µg/m³ 2016: 8.22 µg/m³ 2017: 7.13 µg/m³ 2018: 8.01 µg/m³ 2019: 8.05 µg/m³ 2020: 6.49 µg/m³ 2021: 6.47 µg/m³ 2022: 6.72 µg/m³ 2023: 5.74 µg/m³ 2024: 5.93 µg/m³
2011 2024
Since 2011 ↓ 39.0%
5 years ↓ 26.3%
10 years ↓ 34.4%
CURRENT MONITORING

Latest station measurement

UK-AIR
PM2.5 17.5 µg/m³
Provisional
Last 24 hours 9.2 – 45.3 µg/m³
2026-09-22 02:00:00+01: 9.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 03:00:00+01: 10.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 04:00:00+01: 10.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 05:00:00+01: 9.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 06:00:00+01: 10.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 07:00:00+01: 11.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 08:00:00+01: 12.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 09:00:00+01: 16.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 10:00:00+01: 15.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 11:00:00+01: 16.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 12:00:00+01: 26.8 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 13:00:00+01: 34.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 14:00:00+01: 33.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 15:00:00+01: 45.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 16:00:00+01: 37.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 17:00:00+01: 21.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 18:00:00+01: 23.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 19:00:00+01: 20.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 20:00:00+01: 15.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 21:00:00+01: 10.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 22:00:00+01: 11.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 23:00:00+01: 12.8 µg/m³ 2026-09-23 00:00:00+01: 14.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-23 01:00:00+01: 17.5 µg/m³
Birkenhead Borough Road Automatic Urban and Rural Monitoring Network (AURN); UK Urban NO2 Network · Urban Traffic Latest measurement: 2026-09-23 01:00:00+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

4.5% 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