New Centre for Cities analysis on Thursday shows inner-city deprivation in the UK declined between 2010-2025, and Manchester has seen the biggest fall in its inner-city deprivation rate of any UK city
Their report report, ‘Uneven cities: The geography of deprivation in urban Britain’, shows the role big cities have played in reducing deprivation
Inner-city Manchester saw the largest inner-city decline in deprivation anywhere in the UK: 58.4 per cent of neighbourhoods in and around the city centre ranked among the most deprived in 2025, down from 75.7 per cent in 2010 – a fall of 17.3 percentage points.
Nationally, the share of deprived inner-city neighbourhoods has fallen significantly since 2010, driven by changes in big cities – such as Manchester, Liverpool and London – and in spite of the persistence of urban deprivation elsewhere.
The proportion of all inner-city neighbourhoods ranking among the 20 per cent most deprived in the UK fell by seven percentage points from 38 to 31 per cent between 2010-2025. Across all urban areas, the share of highly-deprived neighbourhoods fell slightly from 28 to 27 per cent in that time.
Deprivation in the UK remains concentrated in cities: roughly two-thirds of all the UK’s most deprived neighbourhoods are in urban areas. In most cities and large towns, there was little change in deprivation rates.
Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, says:
“The Government’s Industrial Strategy and its Northern Growth Strategy rightly give large cities a driving role in improving living standards across the country. The shifts in Manchester, Liverpool and London are nationally noteworthy and suggest a big cities-focused approach is a reliable way to improve living standards across the UK.
“Most large towns and cities saw deprivation persist or slightly rise, and this only underlines how much we need to learn from the improvements in Liverpool, Manchester and London.
“The challenge now is to build on the progress made since 2010. England’s large cities now have metro mayors to champion their local economies, with the power to expand public transport connectivity to central areas, and build homes in well-connected locations – widening access to good jobs and opportunities across their regions, and delivering change that people feel.
“Government needs to continue to back mayors to deliver and ensure their plans for fiscal devolution reward metro mayors for the steps they take to boost local growth.”
