Quantitative Neighbourhood Measures

Definition

Quantitative Neighbourhood Measures are data-driven indicators used to assess the socio-economic, environmental and health conditions of a neighbourhood. These measures include:

• Income and employment statistics
• Crime rates
• Health and well-being indicators
• Access to services (e.g., GP surgeries, public transport, education)
• Housing conditions

They are commonly derived from Census data, Indices of Deprivation and public datasets.

Also known as

Neighbourhood statistics, spatial indicators

Relevance to OCSI

OCSI’s Local Insight tool hosts a variety of Quantitative Neighbourhood Measures to help organisations understand and address a wide range of social, economic and environmental issues at a local level. These measures provide data-driven insights that help policymakers, community organisations and researchers make informed decisions. OCSI also use Quantitative Neighbourhood Measures to develop their own composite Indices which are powerful tools for summarising complex, multidimensional issues into a single, easy-to-use metric. These composite measures, such as the Index of Multiple Deprivation and Community Needs Index (CNI), are especially useful for enabling comparisons and benchmarking by ranking neighbourhoods and tracking progress or deterioration over time.

Related links and examples

• Index of Multiple Deprivation
• Community Needs Index 2023

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