Infant mortality 'highest in UK'

Birmingham, Solihull and the Black Country have the UK's highest infant mortality rate, researchers say.

The Changing UK report found the infant mortality rate for the BBC WM area was 7.5 per 1,000 births in 2005 - the highest of the BBC's 45 radio areas.

The report, commissioned by BBC Nations and Regions, looked at the Census and other statistics to see how communities had changed over the past 40 years.

Researchers found Britain had become more polarised and socially fragmented.

Britain was more polarised with people living among their "own kind" in terms of age, economic status and other factors, the researchers at Sheffield University found.

'Breadline poor'

The report, led by Professor Danny Dorling, considered communities in terms of the BBC's 15 television regions and 45 local radio areas.

The BBC Radio WM area had the highest population density outside London as well as the highest percentage of under fives, with 6.4% of its population below this age.

The station also serves parts of north Worcestershire and south Staffordshire.

The area has the third highest number of people out of the 45 areas who were "breadline poor" in 2000, researchers found. This was an 8% increase from 1990 and 13% above the 1981 figure.