English deprivation data in 2025: What has changed?

On 30 October 2025, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published an update to the English Indices of Deprivation, which ranks small areas in England according to how deprived they are.

The last update to this data was in 2019. The 2025 data includes some new indicators of deprivation, such as low broadband speeds and broader measures of homelessness, although the methodology is mostly consistent between editions.

What is deprivation?

Deprivation generally refers to unmet need; for example, someone could be deprived of housing, high-quality food or public services. This might be because they have a low income, or for other reasons not directly related to income, such as a high crime rate.

The English Indices of Deprivation measures how deprived areas are, rather than individual people or households.

How is deprivation measured?

The Indices of Deprivation measures deprivation across seven domains:

• income deprivation
• employment deprivation
• education, skills and training deprivation
• health deprivation and disability
• crime
• barriers to housing and services
• living environment deprivation

Each domain is made up of individual measurements called indicators. For example, one of the indicators in the living environment domain is the proportion of homes in poor condition.

Each indicator is measured for the 33,755 small areas (LSOAs, or lower-layer super output areas, each with 1,000 to 3,000 residents) in England. The indicators in each domain are combined to produce a domain deprivation score, and small areas are ranked according to their score.

The ranks for each domain are then combined to produce an overall multiple deprivation rank for each small area.

How has measuring deprivation changed since 2019?

Of the 55 indicators in the 2025 Indices in Deprivation, 20 are new and 14 are significantly modified compared with the 2019 edition.

These changes, as well as the full list of indicators for each domain, are set out in chapter 4 of the 2025 English Indices of Deprivation technical report.

Income deprivation

The income domain measures the proportion of people receiving certain means-tested state benefits, including Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit.

The main changes since 2019 are:

• including Housing Benefit claimants with below 70% of the national median income (after housing costs)
• changing how Universal Credit claimants are counted; previously it included all claimants except those in the ‘Working – no requirements group’, whereas now it includes all claimants but applies an income threshold to in-work claimants
• changing the income threshold for those claiming Tax Credits from 60% of median national income before housing costs to 70% of median national income after housing costs

The technical report says that some of these changes were to account for the rollout of Universal Credit. The change to the income threshold was to better align with the Department for Work and Pensions approach to measuring deprivation in other statistics.

Employment deprivation

The employment domain measures the proportion of working-age people (aged 18 to 66) who want to work but can’t (for example, due to a lack of opportunities or caring responsibilities) based on benefits data.

The main changes since 2019 are:

• including Income Support claimants and more Universal Credit conditionality groups
• changing the definition of working age to reflect changes in the state pension age; previously it was 18 to 64 for men and 18 to 59 for women

The technical report says the additional benefits were included to account for the rollout of Universal Credit.

Education, skills and training deprivation

The education domain measures educational attainment and skills.

The main changes since 2019 are:

• including the rate of absences from primary schools and special schools; previously it only measured secondary schools
• including an indicator of persistent pupil absence
• removing the indicator for young people not staying in education after age 16

The technical report says the staying in education indicator was removed because, since 2014, it has been mandatory for those up to age 18 to be in education or training, making the indicator redundant. Persistent absence and absences in other types of school were included because of the rise in school absences since the covid-19 pandemic.

Health deprivation and disability

The health domain measures disability (using benefits data), premature deaths, hospital admissions and mental health.

The indicators are roughly the same as in 2019, although the mental health indicator now includes a broader range of conditions.

Crime

The crime domain measures the rates of several categories of crime.

The main changes since 2019 are:

• including a larger list of offences (82 compared with 37 in 2019); new offences include public order offences, weapons possession, and antisocial behaviour
• grouping these offences differently; for example, stalking and harassment offences have their own indicator in 2025 but were included in a general violence indicator in 2019
• taking an average crime rate over a longer period (up to five years, depending on the offence, compared with two years in 2019)

The technical report says these changes were mainly because robust data had become more available.

Barriers to housing and services

The housing and services domain measures geographical barriers (travel times) and other barriers (such as affordability) to housing and local services.

The main changes since 2019 are:

• including core homelessness (which measures the most extreme and immediate forms of homelessness), average broadband speed, and patient-to-GP ratio as new indicators
• replacing indicators of road distance to the nearest post office, school, shop, and GP with a connectivity score reflecting time taken to travel to a broader range of destinations (including people’s jobs, leisure centres, and banks)

The technical report says the core homelessness indicator was added to complement the existing statutory homelessness indicator; it includes a broader range of data sources on different kinds of homelessness. Broadband speed was added in response to consultation and to match the indicators already used in deprivation data for other parts of the UK, and patient-to-GP ratio was added to complement the existing distance-to-a-GP indicator.

Living environment deprivation

The environment domain measures the quality of the indoor and outdoor environment, including road safety and housing and air quality.

The main changes since 2019 are:

• including new indicators of noise pollution and housing lacking outdoor space
• replacing the houses without central heating indicator with an energy efficiency indicator based on Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data

The technical report says it replaced the central heating indicator because so few houses now lack central heating that the indicator does not adequately reflect deprivation.

How have the deprivation rankings of constituencies in England changed?

The table below shows the 10 constituencies in England with the highest overall deprivation in the 2019 and 2025 data. These are all in or near cities in the north of England and the midlands.

Most constituencies (259) moved fewer than 16 places in the ranking.

The Library’s deprivation dashboard gives further information about small areas within constituencies, and the Library briefing on deprivation in English constituencies contains a list of all 543 English constituency ranks.

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About the author: Campbell Brooks is the Commons Library’s Editor.

Photo by Georg Eiermann, via Unsplash