What does deprivation mean?
Deprivation is broader than income alone. It describes a lack of resources and opportunities across areas such as employment, education, health, safety, housing, access to services and the local environment.
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Bracknell Forest Deprivation Profile
Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025
What the English Indices of Deprivation measure, how the Index of Multiple Deprivation is built, and what its ranks and deciles can and cannot tell you about a neighbourhood.
About the English Indices of Deprivation
The English Indices of Deprivation 2025 provide a relative measure of deprivation for small areas across England. Each of England's 33,755 Lower-layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) is ranked from most deprived to least deprived.
The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) combines seven different domains. The domain measures can also be explored separately, because an area may experience one form of deprivation without being highly deprived on every measure.
1Most deprived
33,755Least deprived
Deciles divide the national ranking into ten equal groups. Decile 1 is the most deprived 10% of LSOAs; decile 10 is the least deprived 10%.
What does this mean?
What does an area's result mean?
The results compare each neighbourhood with every other neighbourhood in England. They describe the area overall; they do not mean that every person living there is deprived.
How should I read the explorer?
Lower ranks and deciles indicate greater relative deprivation. Rank 1 is the most deprived area nationally, and decile 1 contains the most deprived 10% of areas.
How the Index of Multiple Deprivation is constructed
The seven domains are combined using the weights shown below. These weights determine how much each domain contributes to the overall IMD score.
Income deprivation
22.5%Measures the proportion of the population experiencing deprivation relating to low income, including people both in and out of work who satisfy the relevant means tests.
IDACIIncome Deprivation Affecting Children Index: the proportion of children aged 0 to 15 living in income-deprived families.
IDAOPIIncome Deprivation Affecting Older People Index: the proportion of people aged 60 or over experiencing income deprivation.
Employment deprivation
22.5%Measures involuntary exclusion of the working-age population from the labour market.
Education, skills and training
13.5%Measures lack of attainment and skills among children, young people and adults.
Health deprivation and disability
13.5%Measures premature mortality and impaired quality of life through poor physical or mental health.
Crime
9.3%Measures the risk of personal and material victimisation at local level.
Barriers to housing and services
9.3%Measures the physical and financial accessibility of housing and local services.
Living environment
9.3%Measures the quality of the indoor home environment and the outdoor local environment.
Using the Indices of Deprivation
Appropriate uses
- Comparing small areas across England
- Identifying areas with relatively high levels of deprivation
- Exploring different domains or types of deprivation
- Comparing larger areas such as local authorities
- Examining changes in relative rank between releases
Not designed for
- Measuring how deprived an individual person is
- Quantifying the absolute amount of deprivation in an area
- Measuring affluence
- Comparing areas across different UK countries
- Measuring absolute change in deprivation over time