South West Public Health Observatory

Rural deprivation and service need: a review of the literature and an assessment of indicators for rural service planning.  October 2002
Report prepared by: Sheena Asthana, Joyce Halliday, Philip Brigham of the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Plymouth; and Alex Gibson, Department of Geography, University of Exeter.

"...if rural agencies are to make clear statements of the funding they require to deliver services to their communities, they require indicators that are sensitive to the way in which social disadvantage is expressed in rural areas and methods of accounting for the additional costs of providing services to dispersed and/or peripheral areas."  

Introduction    -   Summary    -    Defining rural areas

Measuring deprivation in the rural context

Empirical investigation of summary measures of deprivation in different contexts

Measuring service accessibility in rural areas    -   Acknowledgements

Appendix: Details of the main Deprivation Indices used in this report

Glossary    -    References    -   PDF version (5.3Mb)

Acknowledgements

This report presents the results of a project funded by the South West Public Health Observatory. It utilises 1991 census data (Crown Copyright, ESRC Purchase) supplied by Manchester Information and Associated Services (MIMAS), and digital boundary data supplied by UKBorders with the support of the ESRC and JISC and based on data which are copyright of the Crown and the ED-LINE Consortium.

The support of the Project's Steering Group (comprising representatives from the South West Public Health Observatory and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, South and West Devon and North and East Devon Health Authorities, John Dicker (Iechyd Morgannwg Health), and Professor Graham Moon (University of Portsmouth) is gratefully acknowledged.