What is the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025 (IMD 2025)?
The IMD 2025 is the official measure of relative deprivation for small areas in England. It forms part of the wider suite known as the Indices of Deprivation 2025 (IoD 2025) covering seven domains of deprivation and two supplementary indices. The dataset ranks all 33,755 neighbourhoods (Lower-layer Super Output Areas, LSOAs) in England by level of deprivation.
What it covers and how it’s structured
- Each LSOA has an average population of around 1,500 residents or 650 households.
- The IoD 2025 comprises: the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025 (IMD 2025), seven domain indices (income; employment; education, skills & training; health & disability; crime; barriers to housing & services; living environment) and two supplementary indices: Income Deprivation Affecting Children (IDACI) and Income Deprivation Affecting Older People (IDAOPI).
- The domain weights used in the IMD 2025 are:
22.5% Income, 22.5% Employment, 13.5% Education, 13.5% Health, 9.3% Crime, 9.3% Barriers to Housing & Services, and 9.3% Living Environment.
- This release uses updated data sources, new indicators and refreshed geographies compared to the 2019 index, meaning direct comparison for change is limited.
Key findings
Some headline results from IMD 2025 include:
- The most deprived neighbourhood in England is in the east of the Jaywick & St Osyth area of Clacton-on-Sea (Tendring 018a).
- Seven of the top ten most deprived neighbourhoods are in Blackpool.
- Across England, 65% of Local Authority Districts contain at least one neighbourhood in the most deprived decile.
- In the most deprived decile on the Income domain, on average 56% of the population in those LSOAs were income deprived. In the least deprived decile, around 5% were.
How to use this data
The IMD 2025 and accompanying data are designed for use across suppliers, funders, policy makers, researchers and practitioners in local government, charities and civil society. Some key uses are:
- Identifying the most deprived small areas and exploring differences across England.
- Comparing domains of deprivation (e.g. income vs living environment) within or between areas.
- Aggregating to larger geographies (for example Local Authority Districts, Integrated Care Boards) using published summary measures
However, it is important to remember the following limitations:
- The data show relative deprivation (rankings) rather than absolute levels of deprivation. One area being ranked higher than another does not mean it is “twice as deprived”.
- The data are not designed to identify individual deprived people or infer affluence of places. They should not be used to compare across UK countries or to draw conclusions about change over time except with caution.
Changes in this 2025 release
The 2025 update includes a number of significant methodological and data changes compared to the 2019 release:
- The number of component indicators has risen from 39 previously to 55 in this release, including 20 new indicators, 14 significantly modified, 21 updated and 3 removed.
- New data sources and updated geographies are used (for example Census 2021 LSOAs) and therefore direct comparisons with the 2019 index should be treated cautiously.
- A rural-area report has been published alongside this release to highlight how deprivation manifests in rural England.
Data access & resources
The full dataset and accompanying resources are available from the original release on GOV.UK. They include neighbourhood (LSOA)-level CSV files for the IMD, domains and supplementary indices; higher-area summaries (Local Authority Districts, Integrated Care Boards, etc); and mapping/geospatial resources.
Useful links: