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Overview

North West · Unitary authority

Blackburn with Darwen

2026/27 view

Blackburn with Darwen · ONS E06000008

Financial position as at 2026/27 Q1 quarter end

View sources
PEOPLE AND PLACE

Population and community profile

Latest official statistics
Population 162,540 2024
North West region 7,737,414
Blackburn with Darwen represents 2.10% of the region's population
Five-year population change
+8,474 residents ↑ 5.5%
2019: 154,066 residents2020: 154,564 residents2021: 154,954 residents2022: 156,268 residents2023: 159,189 residents2024: 162,540 residents
Blackburn with Darwen +5.5%
North West +5.1%
England +4.3%
Growth context

Blackburn with Darwen's population grew over five years. Its change was broadly in line with the North West and 1.2 percentage points above 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

6.3 µg/m³

PM2.5 · 2,024

Human-related sources 5.9 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

40.0%
10.5 6.3
2011: 10.53 µg/m³ 2012: 9.56 µg/m³ 2013: 9.90 µg/m³ 2014: 9.60 µg/m³ 2015: 7.60 µg/m³ 2016: 8.39 µg/m³ 2017: 7.44 µg/m³ 2018: 7.88 µg/m³ 2019: 7.88 µg/m³ 2020: 6.55 µg/m³ 2021: 6.34 µg/m³ 2022: 6.94 µg/m³ 2023: 6.43 µg/m³ 2024: 6.32 µg/m³
2011 2024
Since 2011 ↓ 40.0%
5 years ↓ 19.8%
10 years ↓ 34.2%
CURRENT MONITORING

Latest station measurement

UK-AIR
PM2.5 15.7 µg/m³
Provisional
Last 24 hours 3.0 – 17.0 µg/m³
2026-09-22 02:00:00+01: 8.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 03:00:00+01: 8.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 04:00:00+01: 7.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 05:00:00+01: 6.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 06:00:00+01: 11.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 07:00:00+01: 16.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 08:00:00+01: 14.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 09:00:00+01: 8.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 10:00:00+01: 10.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 11:00:00+01: 14.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 12:00:00+01: 16.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 13:00:00+01: 17.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 14:00:00+01: 13.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 15:00:00+01: 6.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 16:00:00+01: 3.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 17:00:00+01: 3.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 18:00:00+01: 13.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 19:00:00+01: 9.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 20:00:00+01: 9.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 21:00:00+01: 9.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 22:00:00+01: 9.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 23:00:00+01: 14.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-23 00:00:00+01: 16.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-23 01:00:00+01: 15.7 µg/m³
Blackburn Audley Park Automatic Urban and Rural Monitoring Network (AURN); Black Carbon · Urban Background 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

4.7% 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