Bowie Penney explains how civil servants across government can use the latest research on deprived neighbourhoods
In October of last year, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (IoD25), the first updated dataset and Accredited Official Statistics release on this topic since 2019.
The IoD25 is the most complete place-based insight into deprivation at a neighbourhood-level, ranking all 33,755 Lower-layer Super Output Areas in England. LSOAs, a statistical geography produced as part of the 2021 Census, represent an average population of 1,500 people, roughly covering a similar area to a postcode.
This short article explains the methodology of the IoD25, the top line results and (most importantly perhaps) the uses to which civil servants across Whitehall, officials in local authorities and in other parts of the public sector can put the data in future.
Methodology
It’s important to draw a distinction between deprivation and poverty. People may be considered to be living in poverty if they lack the financial resources to meet their needs. People may be regarded as deprived if they lack any kind of resources, not just financial (e.g. diet, housing, or work and social conditions).
The IoD25, significantly enhanced following extensive consultation in 2022, is based on 55 separate data sources, termed indicators, organised across seven distinct domains of deprivation – income, employment, education, health, crime, barriers to housing and services and the living environment (Figure 1). The majority of these are sourced from administrative data across government. The seven individual domains are then combined and weighted to create the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), the official measure of deprivation in England. Two supplementary indices measuring income deprivation affecting children (IDACI) and older people (IDAOPI) are also produced, creating a suite of 10 standalone indexes.
Figure 1
Results
Map 1 shows the granular results across the country as a whole, ranging from the most deprived LSOAs in dark blue to the least deprived in pale green/white. Map 2 zooms in on areas around Essex and Suffolk to illustrate the complexity at a regional level.
Map 1: Distribution of the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025 (IMD25) by LSOA in England
Deprivation is particularly concentrated in large urban conurbations (such as Birmingham, Liverpool, Greater Manchester and parts of Teesside), areas that have historically had large heavy industry manufacturing and/or mining sectors (such as Bradford, Nottingham, Blackburn with Darwin) and connected rural villages, coastal towns (such as Blackpool, Hartlepool and Hastings) and parts of East London.
The most deprived neighbourhood in England according to the IoD25 is to the east of the Jaywick and St Osyth area of Clacton-on-Sea in Tendring. Neighbourhoods in Blackpool account for seven of the ten most deprived neighbourhoods nationally, with one area in Hastings and one in Rotherham making up the rest of the most deprived ten.
Map 2: Distribution of the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025 (IMD25) by LSOA across parts of Essex and Suffolk
Three neighbourhoods rank among the most deprived 100 LSOAs on each Index of Multiple Deprivation update since 2004 – an area of central Rochdale, a neighbourhood of Ayresome in Middlesbrough, and part of Bidston Hill on the Wirral.
At local authority level, Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Hartlepool, Kingston upon Hull and Manchester have the highest proportions of most deprived neighbourhoods in England.
Uses
As a resource, the Indices support a wide range of analytical work across government and beyond – from community integration projects and models for public service funding allocation, to policies for improving local areas, highlighting disparities and identifying how they might be addressed. At a local level, the indices also provide a consistent tool to assess relative deprivation, enabling stakeholders to identify priorities for improvement and work with communities to generate local solutions. They are also widely used across academia, charities and third sector organisations. Given its Accredited Official Statistic status, the Indices meet the highest levels of trustworthiness, quality and value for users.
A prominent case is the Pride in Place Programme (PiPP), a UK-wide, MHCLG-driven programme providing up to £5 billion of investment to disadvantaged neighbourhoods over 10 years. In England, its various phases draw neighbourhood-level data from the Indices, rescaling and combining that data with complementary measures to provide a view of areas with the poorest social and economic outcomes.
The Local Government Finance Settlement, the annual determination of funding to local government led by MHCLG which allocated close to £70bn in 2025-26, is another example. Indices data is drawn on, augmented and incorporated into various elements and detailed formulae, aiding the assessment of need at a local level. The overall IMD measure, given its combination of seven distinct types of deprivation, and the IDACI feed prominently into specific allocations.
Across Whitehall, at the Department for Education (DfE), Indices data are used in a variety of school and pupil-level analysis including the National School Funding Formula, pre-16 school and 16-19 education funding, 19+ funding and the School Health Needs Index. More specifically, the IDACI is used to help provide more support for pupils from deprived areas, whilst the IMD is used to help allocate student support and programme funding. The combined measure is also used as an indicator for economic disadvantage in adult education provision, combining with other data to help distribute resources.
At the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), there has been long-standing interest in understanding more about deprivation in rural contexts, how this may differ from other types of area and how that can be more specifically measured or considered in a policy context. As part of the IoD25 release, a Rural Report, produced in collaboration with Defra, considered these questions more deeply, outlining how rural deprivation has been explicitly considered in the development of the latest release.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also regularly draws on the Indices in various ways – from analysing the intersection between measures of healthy life expectancy and deprived areas, tracking the price of the lowest-cost grocery items across England and understanding correlations between smoking and levels of deprivation across England and Wales, to a wealth of Covid-related analysis and reporting.
Collaboration
Given the range of data incorporated, there is scarcely a Whitehall department which hasn’t been involved in the compilation of the latest indices – many producing bespoke datasets for inclusion, others engaging on development and changes, more still in using and augmenting data to produce policy-specific analysis. It’s a great example of what can be achieved by working together.
The IoD25 suite of resources includes a National Statistic Release, covering headline findings and commentary, a Research Report providing guidance on how to use and interpret the datasets, a Technical Report detailing the conceptual framework, methodology and data sources used and a Rural Report, produced in collaboration with Defra.
Our Local Deprivation Explorer allows users to look up and download deprivation data for their area (including specific postcodes) and explore comparisons across England using an interactive map.
If you’d like to discuss your work, or have any questions about the Indices, just get in touch – indices.deprivation@communities.gov.uk
