Rural England
Without a bank account
Key points
- As in urban districts, low-income households are more likely to have no bank or building society account than households on average incomes.
- For both low-income households and households on average incomes, those in the more rural districts ('very rural' and 'mostly rural' in the graph) are less likely to have no bank or building society account than their counterparts in the less rural districts.
- As in urban districts, the proportion of households in rural districts who have no bank or building society account has fallen over the last decade. However, the rate of reduction has been much slower than that in urban districts and, as a result, the differences between rural and urban districts have effectively been eliminated over the last decade.
- See the UK indicator on bank accounts.
Graph 1: By level of income
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Graph 2: Over time
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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 | Average of 2004/05 to 2006/07 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Households in the poorest fifth | Households with average incomes | All households | |
| 'Very rural' districts | 9 | 8 | 8 |
| 'Mostly rural' districts | 6 | 11 | 9 |
| 'Part rural' districts | 13 | 13 | 12 |
Definitions and data sources
The graphs
For each type of local authority district, the first graph shows the proportion of households without a bank, building society or any other kind of account. The data is split to show households in the poorest fifth of the income distribution and for households on average incomes (middle fifth of the income distribution) separately. As well as bank and building society accounts, the figures also count any savings or investment accounts as well as post office card accounts but do not include stocks and shares, premium bonds, gilts, Save As You Earn arrangements or Credit Unions. Income is household disposable income, equivalised (adjusted) to take account of household composition and is measured after deducting housing costs.
For each type of local authority district, the second graph shows how the proportion of households without a bank, building society or any other kind of account has changed over time. The data is for all households.
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
Family Resources Survey, DWP.
The numbers
| Type of district | Proportion of households without an account | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average of 1995/96 to 1997/98 | Average of 2005/06 to 2007/08 | |||||
| Households in the poorest fifth | Households with average incomes | All households | Households in the poorest fifth | Households with average incomes | All households | |
| 'Very rural' districts | 15% | 2% | 5% | 6% | 2% | 3% |
| 'Mostly rural' districts | 14% | 3% | 5% | 4% | 3% | 3% |
| 'Part rural' districts | 16% | 4% | 5% | 8% | 4% | 4% |
| Urban districts | 25% | 5% | 10% | 6% | 3% | 4% |