Shared Opportunities

AHAH (the index of ‘Access to Health Assets and Hazards’) is a multi-dimensional index developed by the Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC) for Great Britain measuring how ‘healthy’ neighbourhoods are. It combines indicators under four different domains of accessibility:

• Retail environment (access to fast food outlets, pubs, off-licences, tobacconists, gambling outlets);
• Health services (access to GPs, hospitals, pharmacies, dentists, leisure services);
• Physical environment (Blue Space, Green Space - Active, Green Space - Passive); and
• Air quality (Nitrogen Dioxide, Particulate Matter 10, Sulphur Dioxide).

The map here is rebased for London, so that 10% of areas in the city fall into the worst performing decile, the next 10% into the next decile, and so on. London is, in general, a relatively unhealthy place when compared to the countryside …

The attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students is lower in Inner London than in Outer London and lower in Outer London than it is in the rest of England. 

In Inner London in 2019, 19 year olds who were eligible for Free School Meals at the end of Key Stage 4 were 14 percentage points less likely to have gained Level 3 qualifications (equivalent to A levels) than their peers who were not eligible for Free School Meals. In Outer London the figure was 20 percentage points and in the rest of England it was 28 percentage points.

Looking over the past decade, the attainment gap has remained fairly consistent, with Inner London always having a smaller gap than Outer London or the rest of England.

These maps show data from our London borough comparison tile.

Boroughs have been labelled higher, lower, or mid (average) according to threshold values of one standard deviation above or below the mean of all the borough values.

Childhood obesity is more prevalent in London than England overall. In 2018/19, some 23.2% of children in Year 6 were considered obese in London, compared to 20.2% in England. 

Over the last decade, the prevalence of childhood obesity has risen by 1.9 percentage points in both London and England overall. The majority of boroughs had a higher prevalence of childhood obesity than England overall in both 2008/09 and 2018/19. 

Public Health England’s latest figures in 2018/19 show that Barking and Dagenham has the highest proportion of childhood obesity out of all London boroughs at 29.6%. The borough also had the largest rise in childhood obesity since 2008/09 (a 5.5 percentage point increase). At the other end of the scale, 10.7% of Year 6 children in Richmond upon Thames are obese, and this rate has fallen by nearly a percentage point since…

The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) is an overall relative measure of deprivation constructed by combining 7 domains of deprivation (with different weightings). The Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC) highlight how it varies with one of its domains - 'Education, Skills and Training', which measures the lack of attainment and skills in the local population.

The Education, Skills and Training domain (which makes up 13.5% of the overall index by weight) shows a more noticeable east-west variation than the overall index and its other domains, which typically have more of an inner/outer London pattern.

• Bexley, Bromley and Havering in the south-east and east of London score noticeably worse (more oranges/reds) in this domain than in the overall index which may reflect historical inequalities in education access that have persisted…

Recorded crime in London is more prevalent in the neighbourhoods with the highest levels of income deprivation:

• Overall, a third more crimes were recorded in the most income-deprived areas;
• Drugs and weapons offences are over three times more prevalent in the most income-deprived 10% of areas compared to the least income-deprived 10%; and 
• Violence, robbery and sexual offences are 2.6 times more prevalent in the most income-deprived 10% of areas compared to the least income-deprived 10%. 

Theft and shoplifting offences went against this trend, with almost 40% more of these crimes recorded in the least income-deprived areas. 

These figures only scratch the surface of what is undoubtedly a complex relationship between crime and deprivation. For example, these figures only look at crime reported to and recorded by London’s police forces. As only…

In 2018, 41% of London’s Key Stage 5 disadvantaged students went on to pursue higher education for at least two years, in comparison to 46% of non-disadvantaged students. The second most popular destination for disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students was employment (16% and 17% of each group respectively). 

This differs from the rest of England. Overall, the proportion of students who are disadvantaged in the rest of England (22%) is smaller than in London (34%). However, only 21% of disadvantaged Key Stage 5 students in the rest of England went on to pursue higher education for at least two years (almost half of the proportion in London).

This is offset by other destinations in the rest of England, including more disadvantaged students gaining employment after Key Stage 5 (27% in the rest of England, compared to 16% in London) or goi…

Employment rates are, on average, higher amongst people with higher levels of qualifications. For example, 88.6% of Londoners aged 16-64 with qualifications higher than A-levels (such as university degrees) were employed in 2019 compared to 49.8% for people with no qualifications. 

Across all but the highest qualification level, employment rates are higher in the rest of England than they are in London. However, a much larger proportion of working-age people in London have qualifications higher than A-levels - 53% in London compared to 36% in the rest of England - meaning that overall employment rates are similar. 

There are a number of reasons why people may not be employed, including that they are studying, retired, looking after the home, sick or unemployed. As such, it is not necessarily a bad thing for any one individual to not be emp…

State-educated students in London have higher GCSE attainment rates than those in England as a whole, with 68.7% of students achieving grades 9-4 (A*- C under the old grading system) in GCSE English and Maths in 2019 compared to 64.9% in all of England. 

Over two thirds of the London boroughs have a higher GCSE attainment rate than the average rate of England. The boroughs with the highest GCSE attainment rates are Sutton, Barnet, and Kingston upon Thames, which saw between 78.4% and 79.7% of their students achieving grades 9-4 in English and Maths in 2019.

In general, GCSE attainment is higher in London than in the rest of England. This is true for both boys and girls, students who do not speak English as a first language, students with Special Educational Needs and students from minority ethnic backgrounds. 

In both London and the rest of England, girls perform better at GCSE than boys, with 72% of girls achieving grades 9-4 (the equivalent of A*-C under the old system) in English and Maths in London, but only 66% of boys. 

Students with English as a second language perform slightly better than those who speak English as a first language in London, whilst the two groups perform similarly in the rest of England. 

Students with Special Educational Needs needs have much lower attainment than the average student and the attainment gap is roughly the same in London and the rest of England. 

In Lon…

In 2017-2019, the average number deaths per 1,000 live births was higher in England (3.9) than in London (3.4). 

To get to this point, infant mortality rates have fallen significantly in both London and England over the last two decades. In 2001-2003 the rate was slightly higher in London than in England overall, with an average of 5.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, while in England this figure was 5.4. In 2009-2011 the infant mortality rates were on average similar (4.4) in both London and England. 

In the years since, the infant mortality rate has fallen further in London (a reduction of 1 death per 1,000 live births) than in England (a reduction of 0.5 deaths per 1,000 live births).

Whilst infant mortality rates vary significantly across London boroughs, in all but eight boroughs, they are lower than in England overall. 

The average number of deaths per 1,000 live births in 2016 to 2018 was 3.3 in London, whereas in England it was 3.9. Kingston upon Thames is the borough with the highest infant mortality rate in London (5.6 per 1,000 live births). Richmond upon Thames is the London borough with the lowest infant mortality rate (1.5 per 1,000 live births).

In 2018, the majority of London’s KS5 school leavers of both disadvantaged (71%) and non-disadvantaged (77%) backgrounds had Level 3 qualifications (e.g. A-levels).

This is in contrast to the rest of England. Here, while around the same proportion (76%) of non-disadvantaged KS5 school leavers had Level 3 qualifications, only 51% of disadvantaged KS5 school leavers had a Level 3 qualification.

According to the Department for Education, students are considered disadvantaged in Year 11 and attract pupil premium funding if they are eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years, have been looked after by the local authority, or have been adopted from care.

This indicator shows overall life expectancy at birth as well as healthy life expectancy. The latter indicates the number of years a person can expect to live in good health rather than with a disability or in poor health.

Overall life expectancy is higher for women than for men in 2016 to 2018. This is true across all London boroughs. However, this is less clear for healthy life expectancy, with some boroughs having a longer healthy life expectancy for men than women. For example, healthy life expectancy for men in Tower Hamlets is 60.5 years whereas for women it is only 56.6 years.

The highest life expectancy for women (87 years) is found in Camden, while for men the highest life expectancy is 83.9 years in Westminster. The lowest life expectancy for both men (78 years) and women (82.7 years) is found in Barking and Dagenham, however it …

Living standards are not just about poverty, incomes and wealth. A wide range of other factors contribute to living standards and well-being and, again, there is a large range of outcomes across London on many of these indicators. This indicator looks at measures of wellbeing. 

London has a worse score in terms of anxiety (3.17) than England (3.05), meaning that Londoners are, on average, more likely to report higher levels of anxiety than those in England overall. 

Londoners score lower on overall life satisfaction (7.54) than England overall (7.66). 

The personal well-being scale ranges from 0 to 10, where 0 signifies an individual not experiencing anxiety or life satisfaction at all and 10 means they are experiencing it to the highest level.The mean averages provide an overall estimate of personal well-being by geography.

Amongst the Lond…

The rate of premature deaths is lower in the majority of London boroughs compared to England overall. However, 10 London boroughs have rates of premature deaths that are higher than that of England overall.

Premature deaths are calculated as an average across three years (from 2016 to 2018) and look at the mortality rate for all deaths under the age of 75. They are presented as a rate per 100,000 people aged under 75 in each area.

The average number of deaths per 100,000 under-75 year olds in England is 332, whereas in London it is 310. Barking and Dagenham has, on average, the highest premature death rate (400 per 100,000 under-75 year olds), whereas City of London has the lowest rate (222 per 100,000 under-75 year olds).

Over 25,000 road collisions were recorded in London in 2019. The vast majority of these resulted in only slight injuries such as whiplash and bruising, but over 3,600 resulted in serious injuries such as fractures and burns. Sadly, 120 road collisions in London in 2019 led to the death of one or more drivers, passengers, riders, cyclists or pedestrians. 

There are more road traffic collisions recorded in the most deprived neighbourhoods in London than the least deprived. The 10% of areas with the highest deprivation saw nearly 3,000 collisions in 2019, more than double the 1,400 in the 10% of areas with the lowest deprivation. A similar pattern is seen on roads where the speed limit is below 30 miles per hour, implying these collisions affect residents in more deprived areas, not just on main roads passing through them. This trend is even…

Ofsted ratings are given to schools by inspectors and range from 'Outstanding' to 'Inadequate'. They are based on a range of observations about a school's performance. 

This indicator shows that, on average, the better a school’s Ofsted rating is, the less deprived a neighbourhood it tends to be located in. 

Whilst this is true across the country, the relationship is less pronounced in London than in the rest of England. This means that children in London who live in deprived neighbourhoods are more likely to have a school with a good Ofsted rating in their neighbourhood than those living in deprived neighbourhoods in the rest of the country.

This is particularly true for secondary schools, where there is not a clear relationship between schools’ Ofsted rating and the deprivation of the neighbourhood in which they a…

Londoners give very similar answers about their civic and social inclusion no matter where they fall on the income scale. 26% of people living in households in the bottom quintile for income said they participated in some sort of civic activity (like campaigning) in the last 12 months, compared to 28% of people in the top income quintile.

There was a slightly larger difference between income groups for people reporting that they did not feel socially isolated; 86% of people in the highest income households had someone they could turn to compared to just 61% in the lowest income households.

Based on average travel times by public transport, Londoners have much better access to jobs and services than people in the rest of England. For example, the average journey time by public transport to the nearest large employment centre from the 10% most deprived areas is 20 minutes in London compared to 26 minutes in the rest of England. 

Based on the same measure, people living in the most income-deprived areas of London have slightly better access than those in less income-deprived areas. The average journey time to public services is more than 20% longer for the least deprived areas in London than the most deprived areas. 

Journey times are only part of how well Londoners can access jobs and services. Price is also an important factor with people on low incomes unable to make the most of the opportunities provided by the city’s publi…