Something I have found when I work on projects for different clients, no
matter how sophisticated the toolset or how complex the problem, I
almost always need to start with the same initial collection of demographic
data; population, income, deprivation, working patterns and so on. This is
your starter kit for understanding some of the patterns in the location you're
trying to analyse;
- population,
- deprivation
- economic activity.
All of the data I use here is UK government open data, published under the
Open Government Licence as open data.
I always find it useful to look at the distribution of ages
rather than the absolute values; the shape of a place's age
profile tells you a lot when you compare it to the wider
area. For example, Exeter and Plymouth stand out in this chart
because of the much higher numbers of resident young people
due to the universities. Torbay on the other hand has a profile skewed
towards the older age ranges, as many people retire to the area.
Use the dropdown to select different Devon districts.
Source: ONS population estimates.
If we were looking at something like vulnerability profiles, during COVID for example, then both groups would be of interest. Viral outbreaks are particularly concerning for the elderly and anyone with an underlying health condition, but young people are by no means immune. In fact a university environment can carry extra risks, e.g. dorms, house shares, group tutorials and lectures in spaces that see a lot of use.
Health isn't the only vulnerability factor; for many people self-employment,
freelance and contracting work and zero-hours contracts have become a standard
part of their income generation. To take a look at the potential numbers of
people affected we can use the ONS Annual Labour Survey data - latest is for
the year from October 2023 to September 2024
Source: ONS UK Business Counts
These charts show two different attributes of the UK Business Counts data; the breakdown by legal status, which shows us the proportion of sole traders in a district, and the size band by number of employees so we can see where there's a high proportion of businesses with, for example, fewer than 5 people working there.
Income and employment are far from the only measure of wellbeing - although they certainly make a
difference. The government's Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) are updated every few
years and cover a wider range of measures including environment, barriers to
opportunity, health and crime.
The top-level index of deprivation is calculated from a combination of the
contributing indices, and assigns every small area (LSOA, or Lower-level
Super Output Area) in England a score based on how deprived the model says
that area is in comparison to all the others. With all the LSOAs ranked in order,
each one is then assigned to a decile with a numeric score from 1 to 10.
Any LSOA with a decile score of 1 is therefore in the top 10% most deprived
nationally; and the higher the decile score, the less deprived.
This chart looks at which LSOAs fall into which deciles, and we can see
that the more urban areas like Torbay and Plymouth have a far greater
proportion of LSOAs with lower decile scores.
Source:
UK Government - MHCLG
Further reading
| Most deprived | Least deprived |
Hover over an area to see the IMD Decile