The Climate Just map tool contains a series of maps which can be used to understand patterns of people with low incomes and other indicators of poor adaptive capacity across England, Scotland and Wales.

Credit: JRF/Liz Hingley

Overall geographic pattern

The Climate Just map tool contains a series of maps which can be used to understand patterns in incomes across England, Wales and Scotland. Some of the main geographical patterns for England are summarised below. The map tool also allows users to overlay maps of potential exposure to flooding and heatwaves. See the map tool for the national maps for 2011 in your area. Also see Sustrans's information and maps of transport poverty.

People with the lowest household incomes are more likely to live in urban areas. In England, neighbourhoods in Central London have the highest average income in the country but also some of the highest income disparities. The lowest average income levels are present in urban areas to the north of the country and on the south west coast. The neighbourhood with the highest income in 2011 was in Kensington and Chelsea, whilst the lowest was located in Leicester.

Very high levels of unemployment – a measure of low income - were concentrated in urban areas in 2011, particularily London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle. The highest levels of unemployment in 2011 were experienced in a neighbourhood in Kingston Upon Hull (15%), whilst the lowest figures were found in a neighbourhood in Cambridge (only <0.01%).

Long-term unemployed households are also highly concentrated. Very high levels of households with long-term unemployment (LTU) and dependent children are concentrated in urban areas, particularly London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and Newcastle. The neighbourhood with the lowest percentage of households with LTU and dependent children was in the Isles of Scilly (<0.01%) whilst the neighbourhood with the highest percentage was in Nottingham (21.2%).

There is a clear north/south divide in proportion of people in elementary occupations– some of the job types which are most closely associated with low wages. Urban areas in the north of England such as Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds and Sheffield had high proportions of people in elementary occupations in comparison to London, which had a high level of skilled workers. The neighbourhood with the lowest proportion of people in elementary occupations in 2011 was in Camden, Greater London (1.7%), whilst the neighbourhood with the highest proportion was in Swindon (34%).

See the Map Tool for more information, including income distributions across England, Wales and Scotland. 

Back to the top