In 2019, people from most ethnic minority groups were more likely than White British people to live in the most deprived neighbourhoods.

The Townsend Deprivation Index is a measure of material deprivation first introduced by Peter Townsend in 1987. A Townsend score can be calculated using a combination of four census variables for any geographical area (provided census data is available for that area). The measure has been widely used in research for health, education and crime to establish whether relationships exist with deprivation. The Townsend scores below were calculated for the UK based on data from the 2011 Census and include a discussion with geographical visualisations of the findings.

This method provides statistics on relative deprivation in England, Wales, and Scotland, including:

• The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) – a measure of overall deprivation
• Domain-specific indices (e.g., income, employment, education, health etc.) that differ by country
• Area rankings and deciles for simplified analysis

Area Types

The indices assess deprivation at a small-area level:

• England & Wales: Lower-layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs)
• Scotland: Data Zones

Ranking & Deciles

Each area is ranked from most to least deprived:

• England: 1 (most deprived) to 32,844 (least deprived)
• Wales: 1 (most deprived) to 1,909 (least deprived)
• Scotland: 1 (most deprived) to 6,976 (least deprived)

The ranks are available in the imdRank field, with domain-specific ranks in fields such as incomeRank, employmentRank, crimeRank, etc.

To simplify, areas are also categorized into deciles (1 = most deprived, 10 = least deprived), available in fields like imdDecile, incomeDecile, employmentDecile, etc.

Mapping & Consumer Platform Adjustments

We use deciles to color-code our deprivation map. However, on our consumer platform, we reversed the ratings scale to match user expectations where higher ratings are associated with higher deprivation.

For example, postcode W6 0LJ (imdDecile 2, a highly deprived area) is displayed as “_Index of Multiple Deprivation - 9/10 or high_” on the consumer platform.

Data Availability

• England & Wales: 2019
• Scotland: 2020

Life expectancy (LE), healthy life expectancy (HLE), disability-free life expectancy (DFLE), Slope Index of Inequality (SII) and range by national deprivation deciles using the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2015 for data periods from 2011 to 2013 to 2015 to 2017, and the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019 for data periods from 2016 to 2018 to 2018 to 2020: England, 2011 to 2013 to 2018 to 2020.

Dataset population: Households

Classification of household deprivation

The dimensions of deprivation used to classify households are indicators based on four selected household characteristics. A household is deprived in a dimension if they meet one or more of the following conditions:

• Employment: Where any member of a household, who is not a full-time student, is either unemployed or long-term sick.
• Education: No person in the household has at least Level 2 education (see highest level of qualification), and no person aged 16 to 18 is a full-time student.
• Health and disability: Any person in the household has general health that is 'bad' or 'very bad' or has a long-term health problem.
• Housing: The household's accommodation is either overcrowded, with an occupancy rating -1 or less, or is in a shared dwelling, or has no central heating.

A household is classified as being deprived in none, or one to four of these dimensions in any combination.

The English Indices of Deprivation 2010 provide a relative measure of deprivation at small area level across England. Areas are ranked from least deprived to most deprived on seven different dimensions of deprivation and an overall composite measure of multiple deprivation. Most of the data underlying the 2010 Indices are for the year 2008. The domains used in the Indices of Deprivation 2010 are: income deprivation; employment deprivation; health deprivation and disability; education deprivation; crime deprivation; barriers to housing and services deprivation; and living environment deprivation. Each of these domains has its own scores and ranks, allowing users to focus on specific aspects of deprivation. In addition, two supplementary indices measure income deprivation amongst children - the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) - and older people - the Income Deprivation Affecting Older People Index (IDAOPI).

Between 2023 and 2024, almost ** percent of people with type 2 diabetes in England were from the most deprived quintile compared to ** percent in the least deprived quintile. This statistic displays the share of individuals registered with diabetes in England in 2023/24, by quintile of deprivation.

Provisional age-standardised mortality rates for deaths due to COVID-19 by sex, local authority and deprivation indices, and numbers of deaths by middle-layer super output area.

Insights into general health in England and Wales in 2021, broken down by age and sex and presented at country, regional and local authority level. Additional analyses compare general health with the 2011 Census and examine the relationship between deprivation and health at a national decile (England) or quintile (Wales) level.

The Indices of Multiple Deprivation for England combine a number of areas, chosen to cover a range of economic, social and housing issues into a single deprivation score for each Lower Layer Super Output Area in England. The Atlas of Deprivation allows a map visualisation of the overall LSOA deprivation score (rank) and the score (rank) for each of the seven domains by local authority.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Edition Subtitle: 2010

This release provides insights into self-reported health in England and Wales in 2021, broken down by age and sex. Key findings are presented at country, regional and local authority level. Additional analyses compare general health to the 2011 Census and examines the relationship between deprivation and health at a national decile (England) or quintile (Wales) level can be found here.

In 2021 and 2011, people were asked “How is your health in general?”. The response options were:

• Very good
• Good
• Fair
• Bad
• Very bad

Age specific percentage

Age-specific percentages are estimates of disability prevalence in each age group, and are used to allow comparisons between specified age groups. Further information is in the glossary.

Age-standardised percentage

Age-standardised percentages are estimates of disability prevalence in the population, across all age groups. They allow for comparison between populations over time and across geographies, as they account for differences in the population size and age structure. Further information is in the glossary.

Details on usage of Age-standardised percentage can be found here

Count

The count is the number of usual residents by general health status from very good to very bad, sex, age group and geographic breakdown. To ensure that individuals cannot be identified in the data, counts and populations have been rounded to the nearest 5, and counts under 10 have not been included..

General health

A person's assessment of the general state of their health from very good to very bad. This assessment is not based on a person's health over any specified period of time.

Index of Multiple Deprivation and Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation

National deciles and quintiles of area deprivation are created through ranking small geographical populations known as Lower layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs), based on their deprivation score from most to least deprived. They are then grouped into 10 (deciles) or 5 (quintiles) divisions based on the subsequent ranking. We have used the 2019 IMD and WIMD because this is the most up-to-date version at the time of publishing.

Population

The population is the number of usual residents of each sex, age group and geographic breakdown. To ensure that individuals cannot be identified in the data, counts and populations have been rounded to the nearest 5, and counts under 10 have not been included.

Usual resident

For Census 2021, a usual resident of the UK is anyone who, on census day, was in the UK and had stayed or intended to stay in the UK for a period of 12 months or more or had a permanent UK address and was outside the UK and intended to be outside the UK for less than 12 months.

Background

This analysis was conducted as part of a university module to compare age with socio-economic group in the UK and investigates unemployment levels with deprivation in England.

Content

The dataset includes the English Indices of Deprivation 2015 and the 2011 UK census data.

The English indices of deprivation measures relative deprivation in small areas in England called lower-layer super output areas. The index of multiple deprivation is the most widely used of these indices. More information can be found on the government website here. The Index of Multiple Deprivation ranks every small area in England from 1 (most deprived area) to 32,844 (least deprived area) and ranks them according to the following measures:

Income Deprivation Employment Deprivation Education, Skills and Training Deprivation Health Deprivation and Disability Crime Barriers to Housing and Services Living Environment Deprivation By including the 2011 UK census data and a lookup table (for combining the datasets) it is possible to see how age and gender corresponds to areas of deprivation.

Acknowledgements

All data has been made freely available by the UK Government and can be accessed here. It is strongly recommended that the guidance notes for this dataset are read before performing any analysis.

Life expectancy (LE), healthy life expectancy (HLE), disability-free life expectancy (DFLE), Slope Index of Inequality (SII) and range at birth and age 65 by national deprivation deciles (IMD 2015 and IMD 2019), England, 2011 to 2019.

Number of deaths registered by deprivation decile, by sex and single year of age.

Around *********** of surveyed parents in the UK stated that they had relied on only a few kinds of low-cost food from March to September, 2020. Additionally, some ** percent of respondents said that their child went a day without eating.

These indicators are designed to accompany the SHMI publication. The SHMI methodology does not make any adjustment for deprivation. This is because adjusting for deprivation might create the impression that a higher death rate for those who are more deprived is acceptable. Patient records are assigned to 1 of 5 deprivation groups (called quintiles) using the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). The deprivation quintile cannot be calculated for some records e.g. because the patient's postcode is unknown or they are not resident in England. Contextual indicators on the percentage of provider spells and deaths reported in the SHMI belonging to each deprivation quintile are produced to support the interpretation of the SHMI. Notes: 1. For discharges in the reporting period April 2024 - May 2024, almost all of the records for Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (trust code RBL) have been submitted without an NHS number. This will have affected the linkage of the HES data to the ONS death registrations data and may have resulted in a smaller number of deaths occurring outside hospital within 30 days of discharge being identified for this trust than would have otherwise been the case. The results for this trust should therefore be interpreted with caution. 2. Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (trust code RJL) has a high percentage of records with no NHS Number. This is resulting in around 40% of their spells not having a value for Age or Deprivation rank. As Age is a component of the statistical models used to calculate the SHMI, values for this trust should therefore be interpreted with caution. 3. There is a shortfall in the number of records for North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust (trust code RAP), Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (trust code RTF), The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust (trust code RFR), and The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (trust code RXW). Values for these trusts are based on incomplete data and should therefore be interpreted with caution. 4. A number of trusts are now submitting Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) data to the Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS) rather than the Admitted Patient Care (APC) dataset. The SHMI is calculated using APC data. Removal of SDEC activity from the APC data may impact a trust’s SHMI value and may increase it. More information about this is available in the Background Quality Report. 5. Further information on data quality can be found in the SHMI background quality report, which can be downloaded from the 'Resources' section of this page.