Deprivation

The Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019 is the official measure of relative deprivation for small areas/neighbourhoods (called Lower Super Output Areas, or LSOAs) in England. It ranks every small area from 1 (most deprived area) to 32,844 (least deprived area). Figures are also reported for lower-tier and upper-tier local authority areas, as well as for Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas.

Somerset is ranked 92nd out of 151 top-tier local authority areas, where 1 is most deprived and 151 is least deprived.

Somerset scores worst (57th out of 151) on barriers to housing and services. This particular domain comprises of indicators relating to geographical barriers to local services (e.g. proximity to schools, a GP surgery, shops) as well as issues such as housing affordability, overcrowding and homelessness. It is probably unsurprising that Somerset scores lower on this domain given its rural and dispersed population and the relative cost of housing. Somerset also scores below average on living environment deprivation ( 71st out of 151), which includes indicators relating to housing conditions, as well as air quality and road traffic accidents.

Conversely, Somerset scores favourably on (116th out of 151), due to a comparatively low incidence of crimes such as violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage. It also scores comparatively well on income (103rd out of 151), health deprivation and disability and employment deprivation (both 94th out of 151).

The table below shows the respective rank for each of the lower-tier authority areas within in Somerset, for each of the 7 IMD domains. Here they are ranked between 1 (for the most deprived district in England) and 317 (the least deprived district in England).

Broadly speaking, and largely congruent with what we see for Somerset as a whole, performance across lower-tier authority areas is best in terms of figures on crime, and worst on living environment deprivation. West Somerset and Taunton Deane were respectively the worst and best performing districts for Somerset in IMD 2015 however their differences are now masked slightly by them merging into Somerset West and Taunton. Sedgemoor is the worst performing district in IMD 2019 with an overall IMD rank of 121 out of 317. Despite performing better than all other districts on barriers to housing and services, it performs worse in every other domain. Mendip is now the best performing district in Somerset ranking 170 out of 317.

Of the 327 LSOAs in Somerset, 29 are within the most deprived 20% nationally according to IMD 2019, up from 25 LSOAs at the time of IMD 2015. Sedgemoor has the highest number of LSOAs in this category (13), followed by Somerset West and Taunton (8), South Somerset (6) and Mendip (2). These LSOAs have a combined population of around 47,000.

As in IMD 2015, nine Somerset LSOAs are amongst the most deprived 10% nationally. These are in parts of Taunton (3 LSOAs in the most deprived 10%), Bridgwater (3 LSOAs), Yeovil (1 LSOA), Highbridge (1 LSOA) and Glastonbury (1 LSOA). The combined population of these areas is approximately 14,000.

For further information and analyses of IMD data on the Somerset Intelligence website please click here.

If you would like to view an interactive map of IMD data showing the geographical boundaries of the LSOAs listed above please click here.