North West · Metropolitan district

Salford

2026/27 view

Salford · ONS E08000006

Financial position as at 2026/27 Q1 quarter end

PEOPLE AND PLACE

Population and community profile

Latest official statistics
Population 294,348 2024
North West region 7,737,414
Salford represents 3.80% of the region's population
Five-year population change
+30,737 residents ↑ 11.7%
2019: 263,611 residents2020: 266,090 residents2021: 270,866 residents2022: 280,044 residents2023: 287,178 residents2024: 294,348 residents
Salford +11.7%
North West +5.1%
England +4.3%
Growth context

Salford's population grew over five years. Its change was 6.6 percentage points above the North West and 7.4 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

7.5 µg/m³

PM2.5 · 2,024

Human-related sources 7.0 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

39.2%
12.3 7.3
2011: 12.27 µg/m³ 2012: 11.22 µg/m³ 2013: 11.38 µg/m³ 2014: 11.14 µg/m³ 2015: 8.71 µg/m³ 2016: 9.33 µg/m³ 2017: 8.26 µg/m³ 2018: 8.71 µg/m³ 2019: 9.39 µg/m³ 2020: 7.33 µg/m³ 2021: 7.59 µg/m³ 2022: 7.91 µg/m³ 2023: 7.28 µg/m³ 2024: 7.46 µg/m³
2011 2024
Since 2011 ↓ 39.2%
5 years ↓ 20.5%
10 years ↓ 33.0%
CURRENT MONITORING

Latest station measurement

UK-AIR
PM2.5 15.4 µg/m³
Provisional
Last 24 hours 3.7 – 15.4 µg/m³
2026-09-22 02:00:00+01: 5.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 03:00:00+01: 7.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 04:00:00+01: 7.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 05:00:00+01: 6.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 06:00:00+01: 5.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 07:00:00+01: 7.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 08:00:00+01: 9.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 09:00:00+01: 6.8 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 10:00:00+01: 4.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 11:00:00+01: 6.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 12:00:00+01: 6.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 13:00:00+01: 6.8 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 14:00:00+01: 7.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 15:00:00+01: 7.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 16:00:00+01: 5.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 17:00:00+01: 4.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 18:00:00+01: 3.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 19:00:00+01: 9.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 20:00:00+01: 11.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 21:00:00+01: 11.8 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 22:00:00+01: 13.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 23:00:00+01: 13.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-23 00:00:00+01: 14.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-23 01:00:00+01: 15.4 µg/m³
Glazebury Automatic Urban and Rural Monitoring Network (AURN); Black Carbon · Rural 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

5.6% 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