Rural England
Dissatisfaction with local area
Key points
- Only small proportion of households in rural districts - including low-income households - are dissatisfied with their local area (2-6% depending on type of rural area and level of household income). These proportions are all much smaller than their urban equivalents (8-12% depending on level of household income).
- 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 below-average incomes | With above-average incomes | |
| Hamlets and isolated dwellings | 2 | 4 |
| Villages | 4 | 4 |
| Small towns and fringe | 5 | 5 |
Graph 2
| Type of small area | Fear of crime has a great or moderate effect |
|---|---|
| Rural areas | 6 |
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 below-average and above-average household incomes. The allocation of households income groups uses 'equivalised household income' after deducting housing costs, which means that the household incomes have been adjusted to put them on a like-for-like basis given the size and composition of the households
The second graph shows the proportion of people reporting that fear of crime has a moderate or severe effect on their quality of life.
Level of the data
First 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'.
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 this data is only available as a single, combined 'rural area' category in the publicly available data.
Source
First graph: the household dataset from the English Housing Survey, DCLG. Note that the data is for the latest year only as the rural/urban classifications are not available for previous years. In this context, also note that the sample sizes for the three types of rural area are very small and thus there is substantial uncertainty about their precise proportions.
Second graph: British Crime Survey, Home Office. To improve its statistical reliability, the data is the average for the latest three years.
The numbers
Graph 1
| Type of small area | Proportion of households who are dissatisfied with their local area | |
|---|---|---|
| With below-average incomes | With above-average incomes | |
| Hamlets and isolated dwellings | 2% | 3% |
| Villages | 5% | 3% |
| Small towns and fringe | 6% | 4% |
| Urban | 12% | 9% |
Graph 2
| Type of small area | Fear of crime has a ... | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| ... great effect | ... moderate effect | ... great or moderate effect | |
| Rural areas | 2% | 22% | 24% |
| Urban areas | 6% | 31% | 37% |