Deprivation Score for Any UK Neighbourhood — IMD Data via API
Structured deprivation data for any English postcode — one request returns the IMD 2019 overall rank and score, plus nine domain breakdowns covering income, employment, health, crime, and more. Covers all 33,755 Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs).
Free tier: 100 requests/month. No credit card required.
One postcode. Nine deprivation dimensions.
The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) is the UK government's official measure of deprivation across England. Our API makes all 33,755 LSOA records queryable by postcode — no bulk downloads, no manual data wrangling.
Scores run 1–10 where 10 = least deprived. Each domain gets its own score alongside a national rank and local authority comparison, so you can drill down to exactly which dimension is driving a neighbourhood's overall deprivation level.
curl "https://api.homedata.co.uk/api/deprivation/?postcode=E1+6AN" \ -H "Authorization: Api-Key YOUR_API_KEY"
{
"postcode": "E1 6AN",
"lsoa": {
"code": "E01004739",
"name": "Tower Hamlets 021A"
},
"lad": {
"code": "E09000030",
"name": "Tower Hamlets"
},
"overall": {
"rank": 3241,
"decile": 2,
"score": 2,
"label": "Highly deprived",
"short_label": "High",
"lad_rank": 12,
"lad_rank_description": "Local authority ranks 12 out of 317"
},
"domains": [
{
"domain": "income",
"label": "Income Deprivation",
"rank": 3100, "decile": 2,
"score": 2, "score_label": "Highly deprived",
"lad_rank": 8
},
// ... 8 more domains (employment, education, health,
// crime, housing, environment, idaci, idaopi)
],
"metadata": {
"source": "MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2019",
"total_lsoas": 33755,
"score_explanation": "Score is 1-10 where 10 = least deprived (best)"
}
}
What the API returns
One postcode returns a full IMD breakdown: overall deprivation score, national rank, local authority comparison, and nine domain sub-indices.
Overall Deprivation
Score from 1 (most deprived) to 10 (least deprived), plus raw national rank out of 33,755 LSOAs. Includes human-readable label: Highly deprived, Moderately deprived, Low deprivation, etc.
Local Authority Context
Rank within the local authority district (out of 317 LADs). Tells you whether this neighbourhood is deprived relative to its council area — useful for planning and grant applications.
Geography Identifiers
LSOA code and name (e.g. Tower Hamlets 021A) plus LAD code and name. Use these to join with ONS datasets, boundary files, or your own analytics.
9 Domain Indices
Income, employment, education, health, crime, housing barriers, living environment, IDACI (children), and IDAOPI (older people). Each domain has its own rank, decile, score, and LAD rank.
Sector Fallback
If the exact postcode isn't in the IMD dataset, the API falls back to the postcode sector (e.g. E1 6) and sets postcode_fallback: true — transparent about what data was matched.
National Coverage
All of England covered — from the most deprived coastal towns to the wealthiest commuter belts. Average LSOA population is ~1,600 people — small enough to be granular, large enough to be statistically stable.
The 9 deprivation domains
Each domain measures a different dimension of disadvantage. The overall IMD rank is a weighted combination of all nine.
Source: MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2019. Updated every 3–5 years. Wales has a separate Welsh IMD — not covered by this endpoint.
Who uses deprivation data
IMD data is a standard enrichment layer for proptech, planning, and social research. Here's how teams use it.
🏘 Housing associations & councils
Identify regeneration priorities, allocate grant funding, and report on social value. The multi-domain breakdown lets you distinguish income deprivation from employment deprivation — critical for targeting the right intervention.
🏠 Property portals & valuations
Surface neighbourhood context alongside listing data. Deprivation decile is a leading indicator of price trajectory, rental demand, and capital growth. Show it as a neighbourhood score or use it as a valuation model feature.
📊 Research & analytics
Join IMD data to transactional records, planning applications, or crime data to build multi-dimensional area analysis. The LSOA code from our API joins directly to ONS boundary files and Census 2021 tables.
🏦 Mortgage & lending platforms
Use deprivation scores as a risk enrichment signal in affordability and default modelling. Combined with flood risk and EPC rating, it builds a comprehensive property-level risk profile without a single postcode lookup on a government website.
Practical patterns
Common ways teams use the deprivation endpoint in production.
Get overall + specific domain in one call
curl -G "https://api.homedata.co.uk/api/deprivation/" \ --data-urlencode "postcode=M1 1AB" \ -H "Authorization: Api-Key YOUR_API_KEY" # Response includes overall.score AND all 9 domains # Filter to the domain you need client-side: # domains.find(d => d.domain === 'crime')
Combine with address lookup
# Step 1: resolve address to postcode
curl -G "https://api.homedata.co.uk/api/address/find/" \
--data-urlencode "q=Flat 3, 12 Brick Lane, E1" \
-H "Authorization: Api-Key YOUR_API_KEY"
# Use the postcode from the result:
# { "results": [{ "postcode": "E1 6RF", ... }] }
# Step 2: deprivation by postcode
curl -G "https://api.homedata.co.uk/api/deprivation/" \
--data-urlencode "postcode=E1 6RF" \
-H "Authorization: Api-Key YOUR_API_KEY"
Get your free API key
100 requests/month on the free tier. No credit card. From signup to first API call in under 5 minutes.