Indices of Deprivation coverage – Evening Standard

This story in the Evening Standard has picked up on the fact that LSOAs in areas often thought of as affluent such as Chelsea and Kensington, as well as the headline’s West End, are among the 20 highest scoring places in the country for the Living Environment domain of the new Indices of Deprivation.

However it contains the erroneous claim that this means “they are classed as worse places to live than anywhere in Bradford, Birmingham or Leicester.”

In reality the domain consists of indicators that measure quality of housing as well as measures of air quality and road traffic accidents. Areas with very high traffic might therefore score highly on the latter two indicators and bring up the overall domain score.