Indices of Multiple Deprivation, 2019

Description

The English indices of deprivation measure 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 and is regarded as the official measure of deprivation. In total, there are 7 domains, these being;

• Income
• Employment
• Education
• Health
• Crime
• Barriers to housing and services
• Living environment

Whilst designed to be a small-area measure, the data is also commonly used to describe higher level geographies, including Local Authorities, as demonstrated in this data table which provides an indication of the proportion of small areas within each Local Authority that fall within the 10% and 20% most deprived nationally along with a rank (out of 317 Local Authorities and 38 LEPS with ‘1’ denoting ‘Most Deprived’).

Commentary

The Black Country has severe pockets of deprivation in each local authority. Sandwell is statistically the most deprived area, ranked 12th in the country, however all 4 authorities are within the poorest performing half of England for this indicator.