Deprivation to many means poverty and is not an easy term to measure. Poverty impacts on families, children and the whole of society and its consequences are far-reaching: creating problems of social isolation: low educational attainment: unemployment: impacting on mental and physical health and social interaction. It can be both relative (for example someone may be living in overcrowded accommodation, whereas someone else may be homeless). It is also subjective, as individuals we will place different priorities to various factors in our lives.
Deprivation can be defined as the consequence of a lack of income and other resources, which cumulatively can be seen as living in poverty. The relative deprivation approach to poverty examines the indicators of deprivation, these can then be related back to income levels and resources.
One of the most common measures of deprivation is the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) which applies weightings to different themes (Income, Employment, Education, Health, Crime, Barriers to Housing & Services, and the Living Environment). The IMD draws on 39 carefully selected indicators that are grouped into these domains and updated with the most recent robust data available.
In the latest assessment, Nottingham City Council (NCC) ranked 18th out of 296 lower-tier local authorities for overall deprivation (using the Rank of Average Rank). This means that Nottingham is more deprived than 94% of local authority districts in England (rounded up). This represents an improvement compared with 2019, when NCC ranked 10th out of 317 lower-tier local authorities (i.e. more deprived than 97% of other local authorities).
More details on IMD for Nottingham can be found in the following pages. For more information on methodology and the national picture, please visit this page here.