The Guardian Reports on New Research into the Geography of Social Deprivation in England and Wales

Submitted by Nell Gross on

"More than a million people in England are living in pockets of hidden hardship, meaning that they could be missing out on vital help because their poverty is masked by neighbours who are better off, new analysis has revealed." So begins one of two articles published today in The Guardian, reporting on the results of a new paper with research contributed by Department of Geography Professor Mark Ellis.

Ellis shares that the paper, "'An ethnic group specific deprivation index for measuring neighbourhood inequalities in England and Wales,' is about the geography of social deprivation in England and Wales, highlighting pockets of deprivation by ethnic group across these two countries using data from the 2021 census. These are complex geographies but the bottom line is that within local authority districts (towns) that may have little or no social deprivation overall there may be small areas (zones of 1500 people) where one or more ethnic groups have very high levels of deprivation. Which group(s) depends on the place. Our message is that policy makers trying to address social deprivation must look beyond place averages to the heterogeneity of ethnic group deprivation experience in small areas within these places when targeting interventions."

Ellis will next teach a graduate seminar, GEOG 513 Proposal Writing, as well as an undergraduate introduction to Geographies of the World Economy, GEOG 208, in spring 2024.

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