Opportunity for All
Opportunity for All is the annual Government report on tackling poverty
and social exclusion. It sets out the Government's current
strategy and measures its effectiveness against established and challenging
indicators of progress.
The following indicators have been analysed using either the Rural Definition or Rural Classification:
2) Low-income indicators (England):- a. a reduction in the proportion of children living in households with relative low incomes;
- b. a reduction in the proportion of children living in households with low incomes in an absolute sense;
3a) Teenage pregnancy (England): a reduction in the rate of conceptions for those aged under 18
17) A reduction in the number of families with children in temporary accommodation (England)
18) An increase in the proportion of working-age people in employment, over the economic cycle (England);
23) Low-income indicators (England):- a. a reduction in the proportion of working-age people living in households with relative love incomes;
- b. a reduction in the proportion of working-age people living in households with low incomes in an absolute sense;
28) Low-income indicators (England):
- a. a reduction in the proportion of pensioners living in households with relative low incomes on the after housing costs measure;
- b. a reduction in the proportion of pensioners living in households with low incomes in an absolute sense;
38) A reduction in the proportion of households in fuel poverty (England).
Glossary
Description of the Classification
The LA Classification was introduced in 2005 as a Defra initiative and was delivered by the Rural Evidence Research Centre at Birkbeck College (RERC).
Many statistics are only available at Local Authority (LA) level. There are 354 LAs in England. In order to differentiate between Rural and Urban for these statistics we classify the LA's based on their rurality.
The following table gives a brief overview and explanation of the notation used in the Defra OFA analysis documents using the Rural Classificaton:
| Classification abbreviation used in these documents | Local Authority Classification 2005 | Long description LA 2005 |
| Rural R80 | 1_R80 | 80% or more of the people in the LA are either rural or living in one of the 207 Market Towns |
| Rural R50 | 2_R50 | 50% or less than 80% of the people in the LA are either rural or living in one of the 207 Market Towns |
| Significant Rural | 3-SR | Significant Rural or Urban-with-Significant-Other (or a full description please refer to the Rural Definition website) |
| Other Urban | 4_OU | Other Urban: districts with fewer than 37,000 people or less than 26% of their population in rural settlements and larger Market Towns. |
| Large Urban | 5_LU | Large Urban: districts with either 50,000 people or 50% of their population in one of 17 urban areas with a population between 250,000 and 750,000 |
| Major Urban | 6_MU | Major Urban or Metro Urban: districts with either 100,000 people or 50% of their population in urban areas with a population of more than 750,000 |
Description of the Rural Definition:
The Rural Definition was introduced in 2004. It adopts a settlement-based approach to define England and Wales at geography levels, which are:
- Census Output Area (COA or OA)
- Census Super Output Area (CSOA or SOA)
- Ward
Output areas are classified by morphology and context:
- Morphology: Urban (over 10,000 population), Rural town, Village and Dispersed (hamlets and isolated dwellings);
- Context: Sparse (calculated on distance to settlements and population). Less sparse (being in reasonable close proximity to a settlement)
There are 32,482 Lower Super Output (LSO) Areas. OFA indicator data that was supplied at LSO level had the Rural Definition applied or was aggregated up to the Rural Definition by the data owners.
| Rural Definition | Meaning |
| U_S | Sparse Urban |
| U_LS | Less Sparse Urban |
| R_S_TF | Sparse Rural Town Fringe |
| R_S_VD | Sparse Rural Village Dispersed |
| R_LS_TF | Less Sparse Rural Town Fringe |
| R_LS_VD | Less Sparse Rural Village Dispersed |
Terms used on indicators 2, 23, 28
Before and After Housing Costs measure:
Measures of Income
The income measure used in Households Below Average Income (HBAI) is weekly net (disposable) equivalised household income. This comprises total income from all sources of all household members including dependants.
Income is adjusted for household size and composition by means of equivalence scales, which reflect the extent to which households of different size require a different level of income to achieve the same standard of living. This adjusted income is referred to as equivalised income. (See DWP HBAI Appendix 2 for further details.)
Income Before Housing Costs (BHC) includes the following main components:
- usual net earnings from employment;
- profit or loss from self-employment (losses are treated as a negative income);
- all Social Security benefits (including Housing Benefit, Social Fund, maternity, funeral and community care grants but excluding Social Fund loans) and Tax Credits. For full list, please see the ‘Other definitions used in HBAI’ section;
- income from occupational and private pensions;
- investment income;
- maintenance payments, if a person receives them directly;
- income from educational grants and scholarships (including, for students, top up loans and parental contributions);
- the cash value of certain forms of income in kind (free school meals, free welfare milk and free school milk and free TV licence for those aged 75 and over).
Income is net of the following items:
- income tax payments;
- National Insurance contributions;
- domestic rates / council tax;
- contributions to occupational pension schemes (including all additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) to occupational pension schemes, and any contributions to stakeholder and personal pensions);
- insurance premia payments made in case of sudden loss of earnings;
- all maintenance and child support payments, which are deducted from the income of the person making the payment;
- parental contributions to students living away from home.
Income After Housing Costs (AHC) is derived by deducting a measure of housing costs from the above income measure.
Housing costs
These include the following:
- rent (gross of housing benefit);
- water rates, community water charges and council water charges;
- mortgage interest payments (net of tax relief);
- structural insurance premiums (for owner occupiers);
- ground rent and service charges.
In the 1995/6 and subsequent data sets a refinement was made to the calculation of mortgage interest payments to disregard additional loans which had been taken out for purposes other than house purchase.
Negative incomes BHC are reset to zero, but negative AHC incomes calculated from the adjusted BHC incomes are possible. Where incomes have been adjusted to zero BHC, income AHC is derived from the adjusted BHC income.
If you cannot find the information that you need on these pages please email Defra's Rural Statistics Unit.
Page last modified:
12 March, 2009
Page published: 10 December, 2002