New prosperity index ranks every council area in the UK

The prosperity of every region and local authority in the country has been ranked in a new index.

The Legatum Institute’s UK Prosperity Index report uses 256 indicators to track the country’s 379 local authorities and identify what is going well and what is going wrong in every area of the UK.

According to the index, the most prosperous regions of the UK are the South East, South West, and East of England.

The most prosperous local authorities are concentrated in the South East: Wokingham, Waverley, Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, and Woking.

And the least prosperous regions are Greater Manchester, West Midlands (Metropolitan), and Yorkshire and the Humber.
While the least prosperous local authorities are distributed across the north of England (Blackpool, Middlesbrough, Oldham) and Scotland (Glasgow City and West Dunbartonshire).

The report also identifies 17 distinctive archetypes of areas that each have their own challenges, opportunities, and examples of best practice.

Of these, the commuter belt around London, Rural England, Outer London, and mid-sized urban hubs are the most prosperous, while post-industrial urban areas, the Welsh Valleys, Scotland’s central-belt, and the industrial heartlands are the least prosperous.

‘This index is the most ambitious and comprehensive assessment of prosperity across the country to date,’ said the director of the Legatum Institute’s Centre for UK Prosperity, Professor Matthew Goodwin.

‘With detailed data on all boroughs and council areas across the four nations of the UK, it is a transformational tool that can help policy makers and influencers target their interventions more effectively on the journey towards greater prosperity. The Index will be updated annually, allowing citizens, businesses, local authorities, regions, and national government to track their progress over time and hold decision-makers to account.

‘The holistic and rigorous approach we have taken has allowed us to identify issues that have previously been missed in the discussion about how to level-up the country. Genuine prosperity is about far more than building a strong economy or giving people bridges and trains. The Index shows that we also need to invest in areas such as safety and security, health, enterprise conditions, and family and community life if we are to see all citizens, neighbourhoods, and communities reach their full potential.’

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