The most deprived areas of Eden have been revealed in the latest 2021 census results.
The figures come as part of a more detailed set of results from the snapshot of England and Wales captured in March last year.
As part of the 2021 census, households in England and Wales were classified in terms of four different dimensions of deprivation, based on certain characteristics.
The first is where any member of a household, who is not a full-time student, is either unemployed or long-term sick, and the second covers households where no person has at least five or more GCSE passes or equivalent qualifications, and no 16 to 18-year-olds at the home are full-time students.
The third dimension is where any person in the household has general health that is bad or very bad or has a long-term health problem, and the fourth where the household’s accommodation is either overcrowded or is in a shared dwelling, or has no central heating.
Office for National Statistics data show 48.1 per cent of households in Eden were deprived in at least one of these dimensions when the most recent census was carried out.
It meant the area stood below the average across England and Wales , of 51.7 per cent. It also represented a drop from 53.9 per cent at the time of the last census in 2011.
A further breakdown reveals which of the area’s seven neighbourhoods were most affected by deprivation last year.
In Eden, the three areas with the highest deprivation rates were:
- Penrith Central and West – 57.6% of households here were deprived in at least one dimension at the time of the 2021 census, down from 62.8% in 2011
- Kirkby Stephen, Tebay and Brough – 49%, falling from 55.7% in 2011
- Appleby, Shap and Kirkby Thore – 48%, a drop from 53.3% in 2011
By contrast, the neighbourhood with the lowest level of deprivation was Hesket, Lazonby and Skelton, at 42.6 per cent of households.
The ONS said deprivation was a complex topic, adding that more detailed information would come in future releases.
