Story · Environment map · about 4 min
Do the most deprived neighbourhoods flood most?
The Environment Agency’s flood zones and the 2025 deprivation index describe England in different ways. Laid together they show where the two meet: some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country lie almost wholly inside the highest flood zone. The zones are drawn as if there were no flood defences, so they show where water could reach if nothing held it back.
Jaywick, first of 33,755
Jaywick, on the Essex coast, is the most deprived of England’s 33,755 neighbourhoods in the 2025 index, and 94% of its land lies in Flood Zone 3, the highest-risk zone. Deprivation is drawn here as a pale wash over the flood zones so that both can be read.
The Humber and the Lincolnshire coast
Take the neighbourhoods in the most deprived tenth that lie mostly in Flood Zone 3, with more than half their land in it. Hull has 62 of them, North East Lincolnshire 22, East Lindsey 12 and Doncaster 9.
About three times as often
Across England, 1,749 of 33,754 neighbourhoods (5.2%) lie mostly in Flood Zone 3. In the most deprived tenth it is 192 of 3,375 (5.7%), in the least deprived tenth 63 of 3,376 (1.9%): about 3.0 times as often.
A modest gap for everyone else
Count people instead of neighbourhoods, spreading each neighbourhood’s residents evenly over its land, and the gap is smaller. An estimated 11% of people in the most deprived tenth live on land in Flood Zone 2 or 3, 7% in the least deprived tenth and 11% across England. The most deprived tenth sits at the England average, so the pattern is in the extremes: 192 deprived neighbourhoods lie mostly inside the zone.
For classrooms and curious minds
Questions to talk about, alone or in a group.
- The flood zones leave out flood defences. Which of these neighbourhoods might be protected, and how could you find out?
- Why might a neighbourhood with little money find it harder to recover from a flood than a wealthier one?
Try it on the map: Find your own neighbourhood on both maps. Is any of it in Flood Zone 3, and which decile does it sit in?
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.