THE face of Herefordshire, mapped out across a sea of statistics, has emerged as one kind to neighbours, where employment in agriculture is rising but green fields are being lost to housing.

Compared to the rest of the country unemployment is lower, but so are salaries; we are less likely to die of heart disease and cancer, but more likely to take our own lives and air pollution is deteriorating while the quality of our rivers is improving. The figures support the idea the county is a healthy place to live. People are overwhelmingly happy in their communities but remain 30 per cent more likely to commit suicide than the rest of the UK.

Produced by the Herefordshire Partnership, an umbrella organisation covering the council, police, health service, education, charities and other organisations, the report is an annual snapshot of the county and its progress toward specified goals.

Neil Pringle, Herefordshire Council chief executive said: "The report gathers together valuable information about trends in the county and will help us better plan services to meet changing needs."

Notable successes in the report include falls in the number of children who smoke, in road accidents involving children and the rate of car crime. Failures are a widening gap between house prices and earnings, the lack of a high tech sector in the employment market and rising rates of violent crime.