New analysis of official 2025 data has ranked all 60 English university towns by STI diagnosis rates, and the results show some pretty striking differences as students head back for Freshers’ Week. Here are the Manchester numbers in brief: 924 new STI diagnoses per 100,000 residents in 2025 (5,449 in total), the highest of the 60 university towns in England and of any district outside London, and 2.1 times the England figure of 441. The rate rose 2.5% last year while England’s fell 6.8%, and Salford next door is third and up 9%. Two things worth knowing alongside that: Manchester’s rate is 16% below its 2018 peak, and syphilis in the city fell 29% in a year. These are whole-city rates, everyone who lives here, not students alone. More details here Quote from Brenda Jensen, Head of Data & Research at Erobella: “Manchester tops the table, and I’d resist reading that as a bad-news story about the city. Manchester has some of the best sexual-health services in the country and it tests more than the England average, and you only find what you look for. Its rate is also 16% below where it stood in 2018, and syphilis fell by nearly a third last year. What matters is the direction of travel: England’s rate fell 6.8% in 2025, Manchester’s rose 2.5%, and Salford is up 9%. With a new intake arriving this month, the message is the same for everyone in the city, students or not: testing is free, confidential and usually by post, most STIs are easy to treat, and knowing your status…