Rural England
Dissatisfaction with local area
Key points
- Low-income households in rural districts are more likely to be dissatisfied with their local area than other households. But, even for low-income households, the proportion in rural districts who say they are dissatisfied is very small (around 7-8%).
- Fear of crime is much lower in rural areas than in urban areas.
- See the UK indicator on satisfaction with local area.
Graph 1: Dissatisfaction
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Graph 2: Fear of crime
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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.
Graph 1
| Type of district | Proportion of households who are dissatisfied with their local area | |
|---|---|---|
| With household income below £200 per week | With household income at least £200 per week | |
| 'Very rural' districts | 5 | 5 |
| 'Mostly rural' districts | 6 | 5 |
| 'Part rural' districts | 8 | 6 |
Graph 2
| Type of small area | Fear of crime has a great or moderate effect |
|---|---|
| Hamlets and isolated dwellings | 6 |
| Villages | 7 |
| Small towns and fringe | 7 |
Definitions and data sources
The graphs
The first graph shows the proportion of households saying they are dissatisfied with their local area, with the data shown separately for those with a gross weekly household income above and below £200. 'Household income' is the income of the head of household and any partner.
The second graph shows the proportion of people reporting that fear of crime has a moderate or severe effect on their quality of life. The identification of rural areas is done using the ACORN postcodes.
Level of the data
First graph: 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.
Second graph: Small area urban/rural classifications using the government's 2004 classification system for small areas. Rural areas are those classified as 'small town and fringe', 'village' and 'hamlet and isolated dwellings', where the 'sparse' and 'non-sparse' sub-categories in each case have been combined for sample size reasons.
Source
First graph: Survey of English Housing, DCLG. To improve its statistical reliability, the data is the average for the latest three years.
Second graph: British Crime Survey, Home Office. To improve its statistical reliability, the data is the average for the latest three years. Note that the rural classifications were not made available for the 2008/09 survey and thus this survey is not included in the analysis.
The numbers
Graph 1
| Type of district | Proportion of households who are dissatisfied with their local area | |
|---|---|---|
| With household income below £200 per week | With household income at least £200 per week | |
| 'Very rural' districts | 7% | 4% |
| 'Mostly rural' districts | 8% | 5% |
| 'Part rural' districts | 11% | 6% |
| Urban districts | 13% | 9% |
Graph 2
| Type of small area | Fear of crime has a ... | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| ... great effect | ... moderate effect | ... great or moderate effect | |
| Hamlets and isolated dwellings | 2% | 22% | 24% |
| Villages | 3% | 25% | 28% |
| Small towns and fringe | 2% | 24% | 27% |
| Urban areas | 6% | 34% | 40% |