Postcode district and sector pages on CrimeMapsUK have a block called “Deprivation where residents live”. It shows how the area’s residents spread across the ten deciles of the official deprivation index for their nation. The same mix appears for the postcode’s district on the wider-area page of a neighbourhood report.
Where the figures come from
England and Wales each publish their own index:
- English areas use the English Indices of Deprivation 2025, from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
- Welsh areas use the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025, from the Welsh Government.
Each index ranks its nation’s small areas (LSOAs) from most to least deprived and splits them into ten deciles. Decile 1 is the most deprived tenth of the nation’s small areas. Decile 10 is the least deprived.
How the mix is built
Each postcode takes the decile of its 2021 small area, and its Census 2021 residents count towards that decile. The block shows the share of the area’s residents in each decile, so it describes people, not land. It also gives the share living in the most deprived 20% of the nation’s small areas, and the share in the least deprived 20%.
Some postcodes have no 2021 small-area code, or their small area has no published decile. Their residents are left out, not guessed. The block says what share of the area’s residents it covers. When that share is below 90%, it shows no mix.
England and Wales kept apart
The two indices measure deprivation in different ways. The official guidance says “it is not possible to make direct comparisons between these indices”. An area that spans the border shows each nation separately, with each nation’s share of the area’s residents. English and Welsh deciles are never added together. Scotland and Northern Ireland are not covered.
What a decile cannot tell you
A decile is a rank. In the guidance’s words, the index “can tell you if one area is more deprived than another but not by how much”. Decile 2 is not twice as deprived as decile 4.
A mix also describes an area, not the people in it. The guidance again: “within every area there will be individuals who are deprived and individuals who are not”.
Not a measure of crime or safety
Crime is itself one of the index’s domains, called Community Safety in Wales. So a deprivation mix and an area’s crime figures partly measure the same thing. The mix does not explain an area’s crime figures, and it is not a safety rating. Read it as context about where residents live, not as a cause of the records beside it.
The sources and licences are under deprivation where residents live on the methodology page.