Deprivation (IMD)

The link between deprivation and health is complex but well established. Although there has been a significant improvement in life expectancy and health over the last fifty years in the UK, the health gap by deprivation continues to increase. There is no recent data on inequalities in Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) at birth for Trafford. The latest data is for the period 2009-2013 that shows HLE is around 16 years lower in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived areas of Trafford (PHOF, 2013).

English Indices of Deprivation 2019

The 2019 English Indices of Deprivation (IoD 2019) were released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 26th September 2019 and are an update of the 2015 release.  The indices measure relative levels of deprivation in 32,844 small areas called Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) in England.

The indices are based on 39 indicators across seven domains of deprivation (Income; Employment; Education, Skills and Training; Health Deprivation & Disability; Crime; Barriers to Housing & Services; and Living Environment.) These are combined and weighted to calculate the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) score.

The Trafford Data Lab has produced an application that allows users to visualise the 2019 release compared to 2015.  It should be noted that the indices can only compare the relative position of LSOAs between releases and cannot be used to show whether absolute levels of deprivation have increased, decreased or stayed the same.

Main findings for Trafford

Trafford ranks 191 of 317 local authority districts in England (where a rank of 1 is the most deprived authority in England) based on the average IMD 2019 score of 138 LSOAs in Trafford. Trafford remains the least deprived authority in Greater Manchester on this measure.

The proportion of Trafford LSOAs ranked in the 10% most deprived in England has increased from 2.9% (4/138) in 2015 to 5.1% (7/138) in 2019.  (Two LSOAs in Bucklow-St. Martins, one in Clifford and one in St-Mary’s ward remained in the 10% most deprived in England between 2015 and 2019, while one LSOA in Stretford, Village, and another in St-Mary’s ward moved from the 2nd to the most deprived 10%).

The proportion of Trafford’s LSOAs ranked in the 10% least deprived in England has increased slightly from 21.7% (30 LSOAs) in 2015 to 22.5% (31 LSOAs) in 2019.

Whilst this change between 2015 and 2019 cannot be used to demonstrate whether levels of deprivation in Trafford have changed in absolute terms, it does suggest a widening inequality in the pattern of deprivation across the borough.

Based on the average IMD 2019 score for wards in Trafford, Bucklow-St. Martins in Trafford's West neighbourhood remains the most deprived ward in Trafford, and Timperley ward in Trafford's South neighbourhood the least deprived. Ward scores on a chart and map can be viewed on Trafford Data Lab's ward profiler.

Page last updated: 15th January 2021