NEARLY 11,000 children in Bournemouth and Poole are living in poverty, the latest figures for Dorset have shown.

The new annual Health Profiles, published for each local authority area in England, show that while deprivation is lower than the national average, the gap between rich and poor remains wide.

In Bournemouth, men living in one of the least deprived areas can expect to live 9.9 years longer than those in the most deprived areas.

For women, the difference is six years.

An estimated 23.1 per cent of the town’s adults smoke and 22.5 per cent are obese. Rates of hip fractures and hospital stays for alcohol-related harm are higher than the England average, while rates of violent crime, skin cancer and drug misuse are “significantly worse”.

Just under 16 per cent of Bournemouth year 6 schoolchildren are obese and the percentage of pupils spending at least three hours a week on school sport is lower than average. A total of 6,080 children live in poverty.

In Poole, the difference in life expectancy between the least and most deprived areas is 8.4 years for men and 4.9 years for women.

Although the percentage of adult smokers is lower than Bournemouth’s at 20.9 per cent, a higher proportion of the adult population is obese at 24.5 per cent.

Poole had 2,762 hospital stays for alcohol related harm in 2009-10 and there are 246 deaths a year from smoking.

East Dorset, North Dorset and Purbeck rate much worse that the national average for road injuries and deaths. A quarter of adults in North Dorset and 26.2 per cent in Purbeck are classed as obese. In both areas and in Christchurch, 15.7 per cent of expectant mothers smoke.