Rural Lens Review: Indices of deprivation 2025

The Government has published the statistical release detailing the English Indices of Deprivation 2025.

Alongside this, a new report, the English indices of deprivation 2025 :Rural Report has also been published which documents how rural deprivation was considered in the new indices and sets out recommendations for further development.  The data continues to be small-area (LSOA) relative measures used widely in Government departments, local authorities, and public-health tools — so the numbers can be used in funding formulas, needs assessments and service targeting.

Some modest changes to the indices of deprivation have been made to address criticisms of previous versions. These seem to have had only a small effect, increasing the proportion of rural LSOAs that fall into the most deprived deciles. A more noticeable effect has been to move rural LSOAs from least deprived deciles across to middling deprived deciles.

Overall, there have been small improvements but they will should not make a significant difference to policy initiatives and funding allocations which target deprived neighbourhoods.

You can read the full Rural Lens Review by clicking on the image below: