Cost of living vulnerability indices

Cost of living vulnerability indices

These indices currently cover a range of different areas (clinical conditions, energy and economic).

• Clinical prevalence recorded in 2021 of the following conditions: Hypertension, Asthma, Ischaemic Heart Disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Energy considers the neighbourhood percentage of 'poor' housing efficiency rating from EPC data
• Economic looks at the percentages of universal credit claimants (December 2022) and households on prepayment meters (2017)
• Food insecurity data supplied by University of Southampton uses an overall index combining the two sub domains; compositional (including benefit claimants, low income, mental health and educational attainment) and structural (bus stops, distances to employment/food stores and internet speeds)

The indicators are equally weighted in their areas (domains) and can be combined into an overall index, having been rescaled to share the same value for the average and the same amount of data within the same standard deviations (z-scoring). More information is available below in the methodology document.