Heads up… the latest Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) report is out, and cannot be ignored.

Understanding deprivation isn’t optional, it’s fundamental. On finishing the latest IMD report and its 93 pages of stark reality, I had two choices:

1. Put on heavy metal and stare at the wall contemplating society.
2. Write a blog post about a system that is supposed to support people… but isn’t.

I chose the second, so here it goes.

For those unfamiliar, the Indices of Deprivation 2025 is the seventh release in a series measuring multiple forms of deprivation in small areas in England. It ranks neighbourhoods by relative deprivation across seven domains: income, employment, education, health, crime, housing barriers, and living environment. These domains remind us that deprivation isn’t one thing, it’s many things happening at once, and happening non-stop.

The last report was in 2019 and this update lands at a critical moment… post-pandemic, during a cost-of-living crisis, and alongside widening health gaps. The results from this update reveal that society and the systems within it are failing the communities they were designed to serve

Behaviours don’t happen in isolation – we all know this, but it’s worth repeating. Lives and choices are shaped by context, and in many places, that context can be crushing. Here’s the hard truth from the latest report:

• Deprivation is entrenched. Most areas in the bottom decile haven’t moved since 2019 – more than 80% of neighbourhoods in the most deprived decile in 2025 were also in the most deprived decile in 2019.
• Health inequalities are stark. Areas in the most deprived decile experience significantly higher levels of premature mortality, illness and disability, emergency hospital admissions, and mood and anxiety disorders compared to less deprived areas.
• Barriers stack up. Many areas are highly deprived on multiple domains simultaneously, such as income, employment, education, and health. This makes “healthy choices” close to impossible.

Behavioural science tells us contexts drive choice. The IMD shows us the seismic behavioural frictions (time, money, cognitive load) that make “simple” actions anything but.

So, what now? Well, this report isn’t just a dataset with colourful graphs. It’s a call to action. Here’s what we must do:

• Talk to communities about their lives, learn from these conversations and stay true to them.
• Take the system to the people: the services, the professionals, rules and institutions that shape their lives. If communities don’t trust that the system has their back, why would they engage with it?
• Involve people in decision making from the start, doing things with them and alongside them.

It’s been six years since the previous report. The numbers are not improving.  If deprivation is treated as a footnote, we’ll keep seeing the same story in future reports.

The IMD report may feel overwhelming, but it’s also a roadmap. Change is possible, and the report tells us where to focus, where to listen, and where to act. Deprivation isn’t inevitable. If we commit to people-led approaches, true collaboration, empathy, and evidence-driven change, we can turn entrenched patterns into progress.

If we miss the point, we miss the people.