We cannot break the overall poverty statistics down below the regional level, but research carried out by Loughborough University and published by EndChildPoverty.org provides further insight into the geography of poverty by estimating the proportion of children who are in after housing costs poverty by local authority (End Child Poverty, 2020). The analysis reports a huge variation in child poverty rate estimates between local authorities, ranging from over half of children (56%) in Tower Hamlets in London to just over one in ten (12%) in Elmbridge in the South East.

The mapping of child poverty highlights the substantial variation within regions, with metropolitan, urban and suburban areas typically having higher rates of poverty than local authorities categorised as being rural or countryside. In the North West, for example, the child poverty rates in Manchester (42%), Oldham (38%) and Bolton (37%) were particularly high, compared with South Lakeland (24%), Cheshire East (22%) and Ribble Valley (19%). In the South West, child poverty rates were higher in Bristol (33%) and Plymouth (30%), compared with Wiltshire (20%) and the Cotswolds (20%). London, which has among the highest child poverty rates, had the most substantial sub-regional disparities in child poverty rates between local authorities; Tower Hamlets (56%), Newham (50%) and Barking and Dagenham (48%) had much higher poverty rates than Kensington and Chelsea (24%) and Richmond upon Thames (17%).

The data presented here is from our 2022 UK Poverty report, setting out the trends and impacts of poverty across the UK. Read the full report at UK Poverty 2022.