Inequalities in likelihood of living in high-crime neighbourhoods
About 2 mins
Key points
- People who live in more deprived areas are more likely to live in neighbourhoods with higher crime rates.
- People from minority ethnic groups are more likely than white people to live in neighbourhoods with the highest crime rates.
- Younger adults are more likely than their older counterparts to live in neighbourhoods with higher crime rates.
Living in areas with high levels of crime can affect people's health negatively. In addition to the direct health effects of being the victim of violent crime, the fear of crime can also have a detrimental impact on health. When people fear for their safety because of high levels of crime in their neighbourhood, they may become less likely to use green spaces and public transport, and miss out on the health benefits these can offer.
These charts show the percentage of different population groups living in neighbourhoods with different levels of crime.
- People who live in more deprived areas are more likely to live in neighbourhoods with higher crime rates. 25.0% of people living in the most deprived neighbourhoods live in the 10% of neighbourhoods with the highest crime rates. This compares with only 3.1% of people in the least deprived neighbourhoods.
- 9.1% of white people live in the 10% of areas with the highest crime rates. This compares with 14.0% of people identifying as being of mixed heritage, 16.6% of people with an Asian or Asian British background, 18.4% of people identifying as other ethnicity and 19.3% of people of black, black British, Caribbean or African heritage.
- Inequalities based on age are less stark although younger adults are slightly more likely to live in higher-crime neighbourhoods: 14.7% of 16 to 24-year-olds live in the 10% of neighbourhoods with the highest crime rates, compared with 7.2% of over-64-year-olds.
- The proportion of disabled and non-disabled people living in high-crime areas is broadly similar; 11.3% of disabled people live in the 10% of areas with the highest crime rates, compared with 10.2% of non-disabled people.
Levels of crime are higher in more deprived areas, and different population groups have a different likelihood of living in more deprived areas. Therefore, inequalities in the likelihood of living in high crime areas will partially reflect inequalities in someone’s likelihood of living in more deprived areas.
- Crime rates represent the number of street-level crimes committed in an area as a percentage of the area’s resident population. They have been calculated for each Middle layer Super Output Area (MSOA – see below) for the whole calendar year. Note that the Greater Manchester Police Force Area has been excluded from the analysis as they have not provided 2024 data.
- Deprivation is measured through an adjusted Index of Multiple Deprivation, which includes only the Income Deprivation, Employment Deprivation, and Education, Skills and Training Deprivation domains. Domains that include data on health and neighbourhood characteristics analysed as part of this topic area were excluded. The excluded domains are: Health Deprivation and Disability, Crime, Barriers to Housing and Services and Living Environment Deprivation.
- Neighbourhoods are defined as MSOAs, based on 2021 Census areas. MSOAs are geographical areas that comprise 2,000–6,000 households (5,000–15,000 people).
- The analysis is restricted to MSOAs in England only, due to data availability at this geographical level.
- MSOAs are grouped into crime deciles based on their crime rates. For each decile, mid-year population estimates were used to calculate the number of people in each of the age and ethnicity groups.
- Disability is defined as reporting any physical or mental health condition(s) or illness(es) that lasts or is expected to last 12 months or more, and that limits someone’s ability to carry out day-to-day activities either a little or a lot.
Source: Health Foundation analysis of Police UK, street-level crime data, England, 2024; Office for National Statistics, Mid-Year Population Estimates for Middle layer Super Output Areas, UK, 2020; Office for National Statistics, Census, UK, 2021; Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Indices of Deprivation, England, 2019
