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Local IntelligenceYour community understood

Discover West Midlands

Figures for
Region

Map of West Midlands

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The marker shows the centre of West Midlands, and the outline is the council area it sits in. Use Full screen for the layers: neighbourhood deprivation (IoD2025, England only) and nearby schools. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

People

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6,186,786
Resident population · 2024
2.8%
Population change · 2022 to 2024
About the same as England
England 2.6%
How do we know this?
FigureSourcePeriodGeographyMethod and limits
Resident population
Estimated usual resident population (mid-year estimate).
Office for National Statistics
Lower layer Super Output Area mid-year population estimates by single year of age (mid-2022 revised, mid-2023, mid-2024)
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0
2024West Midlands (Region)aggregated, high quality
Population change 2022 to 2024 (%)
Percentage change between mid-2022 (revised) and mid-2024.
Office for National Statistics
Lower layer Super Output Area mid-year population estimates by single year of age (mid-2022 revised, mid-2023, mid-2024)
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0
2022-2024West Midlands (Region)aggregated, high quality
Method: Mid-year population estimates

ONS mid-year estimates are modelled from the 2021 Census, births, deaths and migration. Mid-2022 is the revised series. Ages are grouped: 0-15 means ages 0 to 15 inclusive, working age 16-64, 65 and over. Change 2022-2024 compares the revised mid-2022 with mid-2024 estimates for the same boundaries. Scotland and Northern Ireland: mid-year estimates for council areas published by ONS from National Records of Scotland and NISRA (via Nomis), for 2022 to 2024, to match the England and Wales years. No small-area (ward or neighbourhood) estimates are held for them.

Homes

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£253,000
Median sale price · Year to Oct 2025
16% lower than England
England £300,000
2.6%
Change in median sale price · Year to Oct 2025 vs a year earlier
1 percentage points higher than England
England 1.7%
How do we know this?
FigureSourcePeriodGeographyMethod and limits
Median sale price
Median price of homes sold in the 12-month period (needs 10+ sales).
HM Land Registry
Price Paid Data (standard price paid, category A)
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0 (HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, Crown copyright)
Year to Oct 2025West Midlands (Region)aggregated, high quality
Change in median sale price over a year
Percentage change in the median between consecutive 12-month windows. Not mix-adjusted.
HM Land Registry
Price Paid Data (standard price paid, category A)
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0 (HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, Crown copyright)
Year to Oct 2025 vs Year to Oct 2024West Midlands (Region)aggregated, high quality
Method: Price paid medians

Sales are mapped from postcode to each geography exactly. The headline is the median sale price over the latest 12 COMPLETE months (a month is complete when national standard sales are at least 85% of the average of the 24 months before it; currently November 2024 to October 2025) and the 12 months before that. Months after that (Nov 2025 onward in the April 2026 extract) are still being registered and are excluded. Yearly medians use complete calendar years 2016-2024. Medians need at least 10 sales; sales counts are published for any area. Medians describe homes that sold, not all homes, and are not adjusted for the mix of property types, so a change in the median can reflect what was sold. Registration lags completion, so recent months can be revised up. Only standard price paid sales (category A) are included.

Education

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2,787
Schools in the area · Oct 2026
90.3%
Graded schools rated Good or Outstanding · 31 Aug 2026
0.9 percentage points lower than England
England 91.2%
How do we know this?
FigureSourcePeriodGeographyMethod and limits
Schools in the area
Open schools (excluding children's centres) with a postcode in the area.
Department for Education (Get Information about Schools) via WhatSchool data
Establishment records, pupil numbers, FSM, SEN, absence; Ofsted outcomes
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0 (DfE Get Information about Schools and Ofsted data, via WhatSchool)
Oct 2026West Midlands (Region)aggregated, high quality
Graded schools rated Good or Outstanding
Share of schools with a 1-4 Ofsted grade that are Outstanding or Good.
Department for Education (Get Information about Schools) via WhatSchool data
Establishment records, pupil numbers, FSM, SEN, absence; Ofsted outcomes
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0 (DfE Get Information about Schools and Ofsted data, via WhatSchool)
as at 31 Aug 2026West Midlands (Region)aggregated, high quality
Method: Schools in an area

Each open school is located by the postcode of its GIAS record, so it belongs to exactly one postcode district, ward, built-up area, constituency, council and so on. A school is counted where it is, not where its pupils live; pupils often cross boundaries. Children's centres are excluded. Phase and type are the GIAS labels grouped for display.

Method: Pupil-weighted school measures

FSM, SEN and absence percentages are school-level figures averaged with school roll (January 2026 census) as the weight; KS2 and KS4 measures are averaged with the number of eligible pupils (KS2) or the KS4 cohort as the weight. This equals the share of pupils in the area's schools, not of pupils living in the area. The England value uses the same method on the same files and is the comparator. Suppressed school values are skipped, so coverage differs by measure (the number of schools used is in the notes). Ofsted outcomes are the latest overall grade on record at 31 August 2026; schools inspected under the new report-card framework may carry no single grade.

Economy

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£731
Median weekly pay, full-time employees living here · 2025
5% lower than England
England £770
2,750,000
Jobs located in the area · 2024
Fewer jobs per head than England here 0.72
England 0.77
How do we know this?
FigureSourcePeriodGeographyMethod and limits
Median gross weekly pay, full-time employees living here
Median gross weekly pay of full-time employees who live in the area (ASHE, place of residence). Cash terms, not inflation adjusted.
Office for National Statistics
Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), via Nomis: tables 7 (place of work) and 8 (place of residence)
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0
2025West Midlands (Region)direct, high quality
Coefficient of variation 0.8%.
Jobs located in the area (BRES employment)
Employees plus working owners at workplaces in the area (BRES). Rounded; place of work, not residence.
Office for National Statistics
Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES), open access, via Nomis
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0
2024West Midlands (Region)direct, high quality
Rounded by ONS. Compared through jobs per working-age resident (2024): England 0.77, here 0.72.
Method: Earnings from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings

ASHE is a 1% sample of employee jobs from HMRC PAYE records, with a reference week in April. We hold the median gross pay of full-time employees, by place of residence (where the employee lives) and by place of work (where the job is), for the latest survey year and the years back to 2015. Median weekly pay is gross pay before tax for the pay period that includes the reference date; annual pay is gross annual pay for the year to April. Pay is in cash terms: it is not adjusted for inflation, so changes over time include price rises. Survey estimates have a margin of error that grows as areas get smaller; each value carries its coefficient of variation and values with a CV above 10% are marked low quality. Estimates ONS judges too unreliable (CV above about 40%) are not published and appear here as absent. Self-employed people are not covered. Residence-based figures describe people who live in the area wherever they work; workplace-based figures describe jobs located in the area wherever the employee lives. The two can differ a lot in commuter areas and city centres.

Method: Employment by industry (BRES)

BRES is the official source of employee and employment estimates by detailed industry and area. Employment is employees plus working owners, counted at the place of work and in the survey week in September. It covers all sectors except small farm agriculture, and the self-employed who are not registered for PAYE or VAT. ONS rounds BRES employment and suppresses small cells, so industry sums may not add to the total. Jobs here are not residents: people may live elsewhere. Part-time and full-time jobs count equally (they are not full-time equivalents).

Community

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83.1 per 1,000
Recorded crime per 1,000 residents · Year to Apr 2026
3% higher than England
England 80.7 per 1,000
13,771
Charities registered here · Oct 2026
Fewer than England here 2.2 per 1,000
England 2.7 per 1,000
How do we know this?
FigureSourcePeriodGeographyMethod and limits
Recorded crime (excluding anti-social behaviour) per 1,000 residents
police.uk crime categories except anti-social behaviour, 12 months, per 1,000 residents.
Police forces of England and Wales via data.police.uk
Street-level crime (12 monthly files)
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0
Year to Apr 2026West Midlands (Region)aggregated, high quality
12 months to April 2026.
Charities based in the area
Registered charities whose registered address is in the area.
Charity Commission for England and Wales; OSCR (Scotland); Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
Registers of charities (registered address, latest income, charitable purposes)
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0 (Charity Commission, OSCR and CCNI terms apply: not the register itself, no direct marketing)
Oct 2026West Midlands (Region)aggregated, medium quality
By registered address. Counts charities by their registered contact address (often a trustee or a head office), not where they work. England and Wales register only. Compared through charities based per 1,000 residents (Oct 2026): England 2.7 per 1,000, here 2.2 per 1,000.
Method: Recorded street crime per 1,000 residents

Counts of crimes in police.uk street-level data for May 2025 to April 2026, matched to 2021 LSOAs by the LSOA code on each record, then split to output areas by population and rolled up (see the area apportioning method). Rates are crimes per 1,000 residents (mid-2024 population) and describe where crimes were recorded, not who committed them or where victims live. High rates occur where many non-residents pass through (town centres, transport hubs, nightlife), so they are not a measure of risk to residents. Crimes with no location (blank LSOA) are excluded; the excluded share by force is in the notes. Greater Manchester Police data are absent from the extract, so those areas have no value. Categories follow police.uk. Anti-social behaviour is incident data, not crime proper, and is included only in the "all categories" rate. 12 months only: no trend is possible and seasonal effects are included.

Method: Charities in an area

A charity is placed by the postcode of its registered/contact address (or the nearest postcode to its geocoded address; some are placed by the nearest postcode to a geocoded address), so counts show where charities are based, not where they work: a national charity with a London address is counted in London. Income is the latest annual income on the register, summed; it is dominated by a few very large charities. "Declaring the area" counts charities that name the local authority (or its county) as an area of operation on the register; it does not mean services are delivered everywhere in that area. Registered charities only; unregistered community groups, small charities below the registration threshold and removed charities are not counted.

The future

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How much of the work residents do generally available AI tools could speed up

  • A small part 54.7%
  • Some 18.6%
  • Much 25.4%
  • Not yet assessed 1.3%

CareerMash staging data (11 Oct 2026), approved by the owner for this preview, subject to change; not yet independently validated

What stands out about this place?

Findings where this place differs most from its surroundings, with the evidence behind each one. A difference is not a verdict: it is a prompt to look closer.

Neighbourhoodshigh confidence

Higher than England: Share of residents living in the 20% most deprived neighbourhoods in England (overall)

Share of residents living in the 20% most deprived neighbourhoods in England (overall) is 29.8% in West Midlands (2025), compared with 20.3% in England (9.5 percentage points higher; n = 6,186,786).

29.8% here20.3% England
How do we know this?
Source
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (LSOA 2021 ranks and deciles) (Open Government Licence v3.0)
Period
2025
Geography
Region, compared with England
Method
Summarising deprivation for an area. The Indices of Deprivation rank every LSOA in England; decile 1 contains the most deprived 10 per cent of LSOAs nationally. Ranks and deciles are ordinal, so they are never averaged. An area is described by (1) how many of its LSOAs fall in each national decile, (2) how many of its residents live in LSOAs of each decile (mid-2024 population apportioned to output areas, see the area apportioning method), (3) the share of residents in the most deprived 10 and 20 per cent of LSOAs nationally, and (4) the median decile of residents. IoD is a relative measure of small areas, not of individuals: most people in a deprived LSOA are not deprived and many deprived people live elsewhere. England only. Where an area straddles the England-Wales border the figures cover the English part only and are not published unless 90 per cent of residents are covered.
Limitations
none recorded
See Living here
Homeshigh confidence

Lower than England: Average monthly private rent

Average monthly private rent is £982 in West Midlands (Aug 2026), compared with £1,459 in England (33% lower).

£982 here£1,459 England
How do we know this?
Source
Office for National Statistics: Price Index of Private Rents, UK: monthly price statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0)
Period
Aug 2026
Geography
Region, compared with England
Method
Private rents (PIPR). The ONS Price Index of Private Rents measures the change in rents paid by private tenants, and publishes an average (mean) monthly rent per local authority from the same data. The figure is a mean, not a median, so a few very high rents pull it up, especially in London and where there are few lettings. It covers rents paid for homes let on the private market (not social rents) and reflects all tenancies in the stock, not only new lets, except in Scotland where the underlying data are mainly advertised new lets, which makes Scotland not directly comparable with England and Wales. Annual change is the change in the rental price index, not in the cash average. Rents are in cash terms, not adjusted for inflation. Averages by number of bedrooms are held for the latest month only.
Limitations
  • Mean, not median.
See Living here
Educationhigh confidence

Higher than England: Pupils eligible for free school meals

Pupils eligible for free school meals is 30.6% in West Midlands (2025/26), compared with 24.8% in England (5.8 percentage points higher; n = 994,036).

30.6% here24.8% England
How do we know this?
Source
Department for Education (Get Information about Schools) via WhatSchool data: Establishment records, pupil numbers, FSM, SEN, absence; Ofsted outcomes (Open Government Licence v3.0 (DfE Get Information about Schools and Ofsted data, via WhatSchool))
Period
2025/26
Geography
Region, compared with England
Method
Pupil-weighted school measures. FSM, SEN and absence percentages are school-level figures averaged with school roll (January 2026 census) as the weight; KS2 and KS4 measures are averaged with the number of eligible pupils (KS2) or the KS4 cohort as the weight. This equals the share of pupils in the area's schools, not of pupils living in the area. The England value uses the same method on the same files and is the comparator. Suppressed school values are skipped, so coverage differs by measure (the number of schools used is in the notes). Ofsted outcomes are the latest overall grade on record at 31 August 2026; schools inspected under the new report-card framework may carry no single grade.
Limitations
  • Share of pupils at schools in the area; pupil-weighted. From 2683 schools. Schools are counted where they are located, not where pupils live.
See Education
Economymedium confidence

Decrease between Year to 29 Oct 2025 and Year to 29 Oct 2026: Companies dissolved in the last 12 months

Companies dissolved in the last 12 months in West Midlands went from 75,173 (Year to 29 Oct 2025) to 61,163 (Year to 29 Oct 2026): down 18.6%, compared with down 3.2% in England.

61,163 here75,173 same place, Year to 29 Oct 2025
How do we know this?
Source
Companies House: Dissolved companies: advanced search API (one query per dissolution day since 2010), topped up from the live streaming feed; incorporations from the register snapshot of 2 Oct 2026 (to confirm (Companies House API terms; the register data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0))
Period
Year to 29 Oct 2026
Geography
Region, compared with same place, Year to 29 Oct 2025
Method
Company dissolutions and net formation. Dissolutions are companies Companies House records as dissolved, counted on the dissolution date and located by the postcode of the registered office held at dissolution. That address is often an accountant, formation agent or liquidator, not where the company traded, so it says where a company was registered, not where a business closed. Every dissolution day since 1 January 2010 was fetched one day at a time and checked: the number of companies stored equals the number the register reports for that day. The latest window is the 365 days ending the latest complete day; the prior window is the 365 days before it; annual figures are complete calendar years. The route to dissolution (strike-off, end of liquidation, merger) is not recorded, so dissolutions are not split. Net formation = companies incorporated in the period (all that were ever registered in it, whether or not they have since been dissolved) minus companies dissolved in the period. The two groups are different companies and are located by different addresses, current for companies still on the register and last held for dissolved ones. Net formation compares registered offices, not jobs, trading or business closures.
Limitations
  • Registered offices are not operating locations; many companies are registered at an agent or accountant address.
  • Registered-office events are not new local employers, closures or job changes.
  • Registered office at dissolution.
See Economy
Economyhigh confidence

Increase between 2022 and 2025: Median weekly pay of full-time employees who live in the area

Median weekly pay of full-time employees who live in the area in West Midlands went from £615 (2022) to £731 (2025): up 19% (not adjusted for inflation), compared with up 18.7% in England.

£731 here£615 same place, 2022
How do we know this?
Source
Office for National Statistics: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), via Nomis: tables 7 (place of work) and 8 (place of residence) (Open Government Licence v3.0)
Period
2025
Geography
Region, compared with same place, 2022
Method
Earnings from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. ASHE is a 1% sample of employee jobs from HMRC PAYE records, with a reference week in April. We hold the median gross pay of full-time employees, by place of residence (where the employee lives) and by place of work (where the job is), for the latest survey year and the years back to 2015. Median weekly pay is gross pay before tax for the pay period that includes the reference date; annual pay is gross annual pay for the year to April. Pay is in cash terms: it is not adjusted for inflation, so changes over time include price rises. Survey estimates have a margin of error that grows as areas get smaller; each value carries its coefficient of variation and values with a CV above 10% are marked low quality. Estimates ONS judges too unreliable (CV above about 40%) are not published and appear here as absent. Self-employed people are not covered. Residence-based figures describe people who live in the area wherever they work; workplace-based figures describe jobs located in the area wherever the employee lives. The two can differ a lot in commuter areas and city centres.
Limitations
  • Coefficient of variation 0.8%. Coefficient of variation 1.0%.
  • Prices are nominal and not adjusted for inflation or for changes in the mix of homes sold.
See Economy
Neighbourhoodsmedium confidence

Large differences between neighbourhoods on recorded crime levels

Neighbourhoods in West Midlands span the range on the Indices of Deprivation 2025, recorded crime levels (2025): 21.5% of neighbourhoods (LSOAs) are in the most deprived 20% nationally and 21.0% are in the least deprived 20% (3,574 in total). The area average hides this spread.

21.5% in the most deprived 20%21% in the least deprived 20%
How do we know this?
Source
not recorded
Period
2025
Geography
Region
Method
Summarising deprivation for an area. The Indices of Deprivation rank every LSOA in England; decile 1 contains the most deprived 10 per cent of LSOAs nationally. Ranks and deciles are ordinal, so they are never averaged. An area is described by (1) how many of its LSOAs fall in each national decile, (2) how many of its residents live in LSOAs of each decile (mid-2024 population apportioned to output areas, see the area apportioning method), (3) the share of residents in the most deprived 10 and 20 per cent of LSOAs nationally, and (4) the median decile of residents. IoD is a relative measure of small areas, not of individuals: most people in a deprived LSOA are not deprived and many deprived people live elsewhere. England only. Where an area straddles the England-Wales border the figures cover the English part only and are not published unless 90 per cent of residents are covered.
Limitations
  • Rates use the resident population, so places with many visitors, workers or a busy centre can show higher rates; crimes are recorded where they occur.
  • Deciles rank neighbourhoods nationally; they describe relative position of small areas, not the circumstances of individual residents.
See Living here

Ask a question about West Midlands

Answers are worked out from the figures on these pages, not written by a chatbot, and each one lists its evidence.

Sources used on this page

10

Registered offices are not operating locations. Ranks and deciles are never averaged. Census 2021 figures are labelled 2021.