Story · Curiosities map · about 3 min
Who has the dirtiest air?
Do people in poorer neighbourhoods breathe worse air? This story puts England’s 2025 deprivation index beside modelled air pollution for 2024. It shows how the two go together, which is not the same as what causes either.
England’s most deprived neighbourhoods
The 2025 index ranks all 33,755 of England’s neighbourhoods on income, jobs, health, education, crime, housing and their surroundings. The darkest purple is the most deprived tenth. Jaywick, on the Essex coast, comes first of all, then two neighbourhoods of central Blackpool.
Where the nitrogen dioxide is
This is modelled nitrogen dioxide in 2024, the background level on a 1 km grid. It is highest in the cities and along the main roads, and London stands out: 87% of the tenth of England’s neighbourhoods with the most NO₂ are in London.
About a third more in the most deprived tenth
Give each neighbourhood the NO₂ of the grid square it sits in. The most deprived tenth then averages 11.6 µg/m³ and the least deprived tenth 8.8: 31% more, against an England average of 10.1. For fine particles (PM2.5) the gap is small, 7.1 against 6.8.
Inside London
London has both the most NO₂ and every kind of neighbourhood, so it could make the national gap on its own. It does not: inside London the most deprived tenth averages 19.4 µg/m³ and the least deprived 14.0.
And away from London
Outside London the levels are lower and the gap is still there: 11.1 µg/m³ for the most deprived tenth, 8.3 for the least deprived. In the city of Manchester, 41% of neighbourhoods are in the most deprived tenth, and its NO₂ averages 15.4 µg/m³.
Blackpool: an average, not a rule
40% of Blackpool’s neighbourhoods are in England’s most deprived tenth, yet its NO₂ averages 6.3 µg/m³, below England’s 10.1. Click a neighbourhood: its living environment decile counts air quality together with housing, road casualties and noise.
For classrooms and curious minds
Questions to talk about, alone or in a group.
- Why might deprived neighbourhoods and busy roads be found in the same places?
- The NO₂ here is a modelled background level on a 1 km grid. What could it miss on a single street?
Try it on the map: Find your own neighbourhood on both maps. Is its decile what you expected, and how does its NO₂ compare with England’s average?
The figures above are calculated from the datasets listed on Data & sources and are approximate: many map layers are modelled or interpolated. Read each layer’s caveats on the map.