Rural England
Older people in low income
Key points
- One in six pensioners in rural districts live in low-income households. This proportion is similar to that in urban districts.
- 600,000 pensioners in low-income households - a third of all those living in low-income households - live in rural districts.
- See the UK indicator on low income among pensioners.
Graph 1: Rates
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Graph 2: Shares
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Rural/urban ratios (urban = 10)
On most poverty and social exclusion indicators, rural areas have 'better scores' than urban areas. The purpose of the table below is to differentiate between those subjects where rural areas are 'a bit better' and those where rural areas are 'a lot better'. It does so by presenting the rural statistics for the indicator as a proportion of the urban statistics. So, for example, a rural 'score' of 6 in the table below means that the rural statistic is around 60% of its urban equivalent.
| Type of district | Below 60% median | Below 50% median | Below 40% median |
|---|---|---|---|
| 'Very rural' districts | 10 | 12 | 12 |
| 'Mostly rural' districts | 9 | 11 | 10 |
| 'Part rural' districts | 9 | 10 | 9 |
Definitions and data sources
The indicator
For each type of local authority district, the first graph shows the proportion of pensioners who are in households with low incomes. Three low-income thresholds are presented to show the extent and intensity of low income. These are 60% of UK median household income, 50% of UK median income and 40% of UK median income. For a discussion on why these thresholds has been used, and possible alternative thresholds, see the page on choices of thresholds. Income is net disposable household income, after deducting housing costs. All data is equivalised (adjusted) to account for differences in household size and composition.
The second graph shows the distribution of pensioners in households with incomes below 60% of UK median household income by type of district.
Level of the data
Lower tier local authorities (districts), as classified by the DEFRA 2005 classification system. Both the DEFRA classification rules and their results by local authority can be found on the page on rural/urban classification systems.
Source
Households Below Average Income, DWP. To improve its statistical reliability, the data is the average for the last three years.
The numbers
| Type of district | Below 60% median | Below 50% median | Below 40% median | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rates | Numbers | Rates | Numbers | Rates | Numbers | |
| 'Very rural' districts | 18% | 250,000 | 10% | 140,000 | 5% | 70,000 |
| 'Mostly rural' districts | 18% | 220,000 | 9% | 110,000 | 5% | 60,000 |
| 'Part rural' districts | 17% | 210,000 | 8% | 100,000 | 4% | 50,000 |
| Urban districts | 19% | 960,000 | 9% | 440,000 | 5% | 230,000 |