'Kick poverty into touch'

Shock figures show wealth divide affecting city's youngsters

- HELENA VESTY

DESPITE calling a multi-billion pound team their neighbour, children on one side of Manchester’s footballing rivalry are more likely to grow up impoverished than their counterparts.

Youngsters are 50 per cent less likely to grow up in poverty (22.3pc) on the red side of the city than on the blue side (44.7pc) – only a couple of miles down the road’, say academics.

These figures are based on public health information from the clubs’ local authority area, which look at poverty; obesity; infant mortality rate; life expectancy at birth; educational attainment; and the gap in life expectancy.

Ahead of the start of the football season, academics analysed data on a range of childhood health indicators. They created a league table ranking children’s health near the 20 Premier League teams.