The Energy Deprivation Classification (EDC) is a hierarchical geodemographic classification across Great Britain (GB) that identifies small areas of the country with similar characteristics of inability and insecurity in access to adequate energy services. The classification is built from five domains: energy efficiency, energy access, energy demand and supply, housing conditions, and financial vulnerability. It includes the breakdown of 2021 Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) for England and Wales, and 2011 Data Zones (DZs) for Scotland into 6 different Supergroups, which are further divided into 14 Groups.

The EDC data for each LSOA21/DZ11, in CSV, Shapefile and GPKG format, is available on application, along with the distinct characteristics of Supergroups and Groups (Index Scores). An overview of the input variable distribution (Data Summary), input variable dictionary and classification profiles (pen portraits) can be downloaded directly from this page.

Quality, Representation, and Bias

Since the Census 2021 in Scotland was delayed until 2022, and the resulting small-area aggregate Scottish statistics were not published at the point of creating this classification, this version of the EDC includes modelled data for Scotland. It is hoped that this can be updated in the future once a complete set of underlying source data are available, most likely sometime in late 2024. It is not anticipated that it will be necessary to change the classifications or definitions for any areas in England/Wales.

The quality and representation of this classification are tested by both internal and external validations. Most Supergroups and Groups have good cluster performance, with lower cluster fit errors and alignment with the characteristics of fuel poverty in England and Wales and the Index of Multiple Deprivation across different countries of GB. The details of how the validations are conducted are available in the paper, which is under review.