Healthiest and unhealthiest places to live in Dorset revealed

Specialists at CDRC investigated wellbeing by monitoring pollution levels in each Dorset neighbourhood, as well as the number of parks and recreational spaces.

The availability of health services, such as GP surgeries and pharmacies, and the number of takeaways, pubs and gambling shops were also taken into account.

An interactive map has now been created to display the findings.

How does the map work?

The map tracks a CDRC's health index - also known as Access to Healthy Assets and Hazards (AHAH).

It takes into consideration a number of factors, including:

Retail environment (access to fast food outlets, pubs, off-licences, tobacconists, gambling outlets)

Health services (access to GPs, hospitals, pharmacies, dentists, leisure services)

Physical environment (Blue Space, Green Space - Active, Green Space - Passive)

Air quality (Nitrogen Dioxide, Particulate Matter 10, Sulphur Dioxide).

Each of these factors is tracked and provides an overall AHAH score for that area.

The he healthier an area is deemed the lower score it receives and, it appears blue on the map.

The higher scores are represented with red and indicate the area is less healthy than its blue counterparts.

Areas are also ranked one to 10. Healthiest areas are given a rank of one while the unhealthiest regions are classed as a 10.

The key to the map

If you want to check out your area in more detail you can view the whole map by clicking here.

This is how healthy each area of Dorset is:

Bournemouth

Central Bournemouth

Boscombe and East Bournemouth

North Bournemouth

Across Bournemouth the town centre and areas with extended high streets/retail like Winton, West Southbourne and Westbourne are ranked among some of the unhealthiest.

Talbot Woods, Throop, Muscliffe, areas of Kinson, and Moordown are deemed the healthiest.

Poole

Poole town centre, Parkstone and Branksome

Sandbanks and Canford Cliffs

North Poole areas of Canford Heath, Creekmoor and Newton

Hamworthy

Broadstone in the BCP Council area and Corfe Mullen in the Dorset Council area

Large parts of Poole rank highly on the healthy scale, including Canford Cliffs, Hamworthy, Lower Parkstone, northern parts of Broadstone, Sandbanks and Creekmoor.

Upper Parkstone stands out on the map as one of the unhealthiest areas, followed by Newtown, Foxholes, Hillbourne and areas to the north of Canford Heath.

Christchurch

Christchurch town centre, Somerford, Friars Cliff, Mudeford and Stanpit

Jumpers, Fairmile and Burton

Highcliffe along with the New Forest areas of New Milton and Barton-on-Sea

The majority of the ancient borough of Christchurch appears to be deemed healthy.

Walford, south east Highcliffe, Barrack Road and western Somerford score poorly.

Meanwhile, central Highcliffe, Fairmile, Jumpers Common, northern Burton and Mudeford are ranked highly on the scale.

East Dorset

Wimborne and Colehill

Merley and Canford Magna

Ferndown and West Parley

Ferndown north and West Moors

Verwood

The picture across the East Dorset towns and villages is varied.

The majority of Wimborne is listed at the top end of the health scale, as are parts of Verwood, West Parley and southern Ferndown.

West Moors and northern Ferndown, with orange colours on the map slip down the lower end of the scale.

Purbeck

Swanage

Upton

Wareham

Swanage can be seen to have no areas in the blue 'healthy' colour although only Langton Matravers, just outside the town, is nudging the dark shades of orange/red.

Upton appears to perform well on the healthy index, as does the majority of Wareham.

New Forest

Lymington and Pennington

Ringwood and across the border with Ashley Heath

The well-populated Lymington and Pennington area presents a full range of the health colour scale, with parts of southern Lymington and central Pennington performing well.

Most of both Ringwood and Ashley Heath can be seen as being deemed healthier places to live by and large.