Bradford Council: local authority assessment

How we assess local authorities

Assessment published: 24 October 2025

About Bradford Council

Demographics

Bradford is a local authority in Yorkshire and The Humber. There is a population of 560,194 and it is one of the ‘youngest’ cities outside of London with a significant proportion of children and young people aged under 16, but in line with national trends it has also seen an increasing number of people aged 65 and over. The population is largely people aged between 18-64.  

Bradford has an index of multiple deprivation score of 9, meaning it is one of the most deprived local authorities. Bradford has persistently high levels of deprivation and the district is England’s fifth most income-deprived area. There are disparities of ten years’ life expectancy and 20 years in healthy life expectancy within the Bradford district.

The results of 2021 census data found that Bradford has become more ethnically diverse. 61.13% of the population identify as White, 32.15% of the population identify as Asian/Asian British, 2.75% identify as Mixed or Multiple, 2.01% identify as Black, Black British, Caribbean or African and 1.97% identify as Other.

There is 1 Integrated Care System covering Bradford which is the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB). There are 2 acute hospitals, 4 community hospitals and 1 Bradford wide NHS mental health hospital provider.

Bradford political administration is under Labour control with their political make up consisting of Labour 47 seats, Conservative 14 seats, Green Party 10 seats, Independents 14 seats and Liberal Democrats 5 seats.

Financial facts

• The Local Authority estimated that in 2023/24, its total budget would be £934,210,000.00. The actual spend for the year was £976,895,000.00 which was £42,685,000.00 more than estimated.
• The Local Authority estimated that it would spend £175,680,000.00 of its total budget on adult social care in 2023/24. The actual spend was £201,633,000.00, which was £25,953,000.00 more than estimated.  
• In 2023/34 20.64% of the budget was spent on adult social care.  
• in 2023/24, approximately 7720 people were accessing long term Adult social care support, and approximately 1885 people were accessing short term support. Local authorities spend money on a range of adult social care services, including supporting individuals. No two care packages are the same and vary significantly in their intensity, duration, and cost.  

This data is reproduced at the request of the Department of Health and Social Care. It has not been factored into our assessment and is presented for information purposes only.