The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is known for revealing the trends shaping the UK. But what happens when the answers you need are closer to home? Arianne Clark from ONS Local answers.
Every day, we make decisions based on the evidence available to us. In the supermarket, you might compare prices, look for the best value, or stick with a brand you trust before deciding what to buy. If you get it wrong, you’ll make a different choice next time.
But what if your decisions affected entire local communities? What if they shaped public services, influenced economies or informed regional policy?
In those situations, decisions need to be backed by timely, consistent and trusted local evidence.
That’s where ONS Local comes in. Over the past year, we have brought together analysts from Strategic Authorities across England through our State of the Region Working Group to make local evidence easier to use in decision-making.
This support is becoming increasingly important as devolution, the transfer of powers from central government to local areas, is gaining momentum across the UK. As Strategic Authorities take on greater responsibilities for transport, housing, skills, and economic development, the need for reliable local evidence grows.
ONS Local is supporting local and central government across the UK to access, interpret and apply local analysis to real-world challenges. From helping analysts find the right data, to bringing organisations together around shared priorities, our goal is to produce local evidence that informs action.
Many Strategic Authorities choose to publish State of the Region reports. These reports use local evidence to tell the story of a place. They bring together information about local economies, communities and environments to answer important questions:
- Are local people benefitting from economic growth?
- How healthy, skilled, and connected are communities?
- What challenges and opportunities will shape the area’s future?
Many authorities are asking similar questions and looking to benchmark themselves against one another. But comparisons can be difficult when different measures are used. One area may define poverty differently, while another may use different measures of economic performance or wellbeing. Without a shared approach, meaningful comparisons become much harder.
Through discussion, testing and refinement, our State of the Region Working Group agreed a set of baseline indicators that provide a foundation for understanding places and comparing them consistently with each other.
The priority indicators agreed by the group are:
- GVA per hour worked (productivity)
- Population estimates
- Children in relative poverty (after housing costs)
- Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET)
- Housing affordability
- Personal wellbeing (life satisfaction)
- Data on protected characteristics including ethnicity, disability and sex
A single indicator cannot tell the whole story of a place. However, together they provide a strong starting point. This shared set of indicators gives Strategic Authorities the flexibility to tell their own local stories while enabling meaningful comparisons.
It might sound like a technical exercise, but the benefits are practical. These reports are used not only by local decision-makers, but also by the communities they represent.
A shared approach helps create:
- Greater consistency, allowing different organisations to work from the same baseline evidence.
- Better comparability, making it easier to understand how places compare with one another.
- Clearer communication, helping everyone speak the same analytical language.
- More efficient use of resources, reducing the need to recreate work that has already been done elsewhere.
The group has had a positive impact on its members. One participant reflected:
‘I found it really valuable to have a space where I could openly discuss the challenges and opportunities of developing a State of the Region report… There was a real willingness to share experiences, lessons learned and practical advice… Hearing that others faced similar challenges made me realise I was not alone… It felt like a genuinely collaborative and supportive environment, and I came away with new ideas and a stronger sense of shared purpose across the authorities.’
The group’s work has informed ONS products, including the clustering of similar local authorities and statistical nearest neighbours. This publication enables meaningful comparisons between areas using indicators chosen to reflect local policy priorities.
As devolution expands, the demand for timely, trusted, comparable and locally relevant evidence will continue to grow. The indicators we’ve agreed will evolve as new data becomes available and local needs change.
That’s why we’re continuing to improve tools such as Explore Local Statistics.
This service allows users to explore local data through interactive charts and insights covering topics such as employment, income, population and life expectancy. Users can compare areas, download charts and access the underlying data for their own analysis.
ONS Local is committed to helping local leaders access the evidence they need, strengthening connections between people working on similar challenges and making data easier to find, understand and use.
If you work in local or central government and would like to learn more about ONS Local and how we can support you, please contact us at ons.local@ons.gov.uk.
Arianne Clark is a regional senior analyst at ONS Local