Find deprivation or low participation data for your area
There are several postcode look-up tools online which can tell you if you live in an area with low participation in higher education, or an area with high levels of deprivation.
POLAR
The Office for Students has a postcode look-up tool that tells you whether you live in an area with low participation in higher education (defined as being in POLAR quintiles 1 and 2).
1. Go to the Office for Students postcode look-up tool.
2. Under 'Area-based measures postcode look-up', read the information and press 'I have read and understood the above text'.
3. Under 'Search postcode', enter your postcode in the text box and press 'View results'.
4. The next page will display the results. The first result, POLAR4, will tell you which quintile your area is in.
Index of Multiple Deprivation
The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) postcode look-up tools for England and Wales can tell you whether the area you live in has high levels of deprivation (defined as being in IMD quintiles 1 and 2).
If you live in England
1. Go to the English indices of deprivation data look-up tool.
2. Write your postcode in the 'Enter Postcodes (one per line)' text box.
3. Press the 'Get Deprivation Data' button.
4. The next page will tell you whether your postcode has been matched. You will have the option to download the results of the search as either an .xlsx or .csv file. You can open the .xlsx file in Excel.
5. Open the file and go to column F. The number here is the IMD Decile for your area.
6. Your IMD quintile is:
Decile 1 or 2 = IMD quintile 1
Decile 3 or 4 = IMD quintile 2
Decile 5 or 6 = IMD quintile 3
Decile 7 or 8 = IMD quintile 4
Decile 9 or 10 = IMD quintile 5.
If you live in Wales
1. Go to the Data Cymru data look-up tool.
2. Write your postcode in the text box, tick the 'I'm not a robot' box, and press 'Go'.
3. The next page will display deprivation data about your area. The information you are looking for will be written like this example:
This area is known as: W01001836 - Plasnewydd 8
It is ranked number 1140 out of 1,909 local areas in Wales. It is in the 50% least deprived areas in Wales.
If your area is ranked 1-764 in the 40% most deprived, your postcode is in IMD quintile 1 or 2.
mask