Statistical Digest of Rural England: a compendium of socio-economic statistics for Rural areas. The compendium is structured into 8 thematic reports and is supported by a high level summary of key findings.
The Statistical Digest of Rural England (hereafter the Digest) is a collection of statistics on a range of social and economic topics, and provides comparisons between rural and urban areas; in most cases, this is as defined within the ONS’ Rural-Urban Classification.
The November 2026 release includes analysis updates for the following themes and topics:
Communities and Households – Police recorded crime (Section E)
Communities and Households – Fly-tipping (Section F; previously part of Section E)
Communities and Households – Experiences and perceptions of crime (Section G; previously named ‘Crime Surveys: Local Police and Businesses’)
Archived publications
Copies of publications up to 2022 are available from the National Archive. This page also includes a timeline through which users can find any archived editions of the Digest.
These statistics are produced to the high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, which sets out eight principles including meeting user needs, impartiality and objectivity, integrity, sound methods and assured quality, frankness and accessibility.
Published today, latest rural statistics on 'Police recorded crime', 'Fly-tipping', and 'Experiences and perceptions of crime' from the Communities and Households report.
Published today, latest rural statistics on Employment, Unemployment and Economic inactivity in the Rural Economic Bulletin report.
Published today, latest rural statistics on Additions to affordable housing, Households on local authority housing registers, Second homes, and Empty homes in the Housing report, and Eligibility for free school meals in the Education, qualifications and training report.
Published today, latest rural statistics on characteristics of the existing housing stock (previously named ‘Housing stock: age and type’) and additions to the housing stock (previously named 'Housing stock: additions and affordable housing') from the Housing report, as well as ‘Broadband' and 'Mobile coverage' from the Connectivity and Accessibility report.
Published today, latest rural statistics on ‘Health outcomes’ (previously named ‘Life expectancy and Mortality’), ‘NHS Dentistry’, and ‘NHS General Practice’ from the Health and Wellbeing report.
Published today, latest rural statistics on Poverty due to low income, and Household expenditure in the Communities and Households report, and Fuel poverty, Central heating, and Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) take-up (new section) in the Energy report.
Published today, latest rural statistics on 'average travel patterns', 'access to vehicles and charging infrastructure', 'transport connectivity', and 'home working' in the Connectivity and Accessibility report.
Published today, latest rural statistics on Energy Performance Certificates: average Energy Efficiency Score and achieving energy efficiency category C, in the Energy report.
Published today: latest rural statistics regarding 'Employment', 'Earnings', 'Redundancies', and 'Unemployment-related benefits' from the Rural Economic Bulletin.
Published today, latest rural population statistics for a range of geographies, found in the Population report.
Published today, latest rural statistics on: English Indices of Deprivation in the Communities and Households report and Businesses (demographics and industry detail) in the Rural Economic Bulletin.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on: Deprivation in the Communities and Households report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on: Housing market in the Housing report, Broadband and mobile coverage in the Connectivity and Accessibility report, Output and Productivity measured by Gross Value Added (GVA) in the Economic Bulletin report and Off the gas grid properties in the Energy report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on: 'Housing stock: age and type', 'Second and empty homes', and 'Homelessness' in the Housing report; 'Volunteering and charity' in the Health and Wellbeing report; and new analysis on 'Central heating' in the Energy report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on: ‘Employment’, 'Earnings', 'Redundancies', and 'Unemployment-related benefits' in the Rural Economic Bulletin report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on: 'Housing stock: additions and affordable housing' and 'Housing quality' in the Housing report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on: ‘Poverty due to low income’ in the Communities and Households report, and ‘Fuel poverty’ in the Energy report.
Published today, latest rural statistics on population based on the new 2021 Census-based rural-urban classification.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on: ‘Access to personal transport’ in the Connectivity and accessibility report, and ‘Output and productivity measured by Gross Value Added (GVA)’ in the Rural Economic Bulletin report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on: ‘Population from the 2021 Census’ in the Population report, and ‘Energy Performance Certificates’ (average Energy Efficiency scores and achieving energy efficiency category C) in the Energy report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on: ‘Crime surveys: Local Police and Businesses’ and ‘Feelings about the local neighbourhood’ in the Communities and Households report, Home working in the Connectivity and Accessibility report, and Business survival and growth (new section) in the Rural Economic Bulletin report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on: Broadband and mobile in the Connectivity and Accessibility report, and Schools and their workforce, and Class sizes in the Education report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on Housing stock: additions and affordable housing, Housing costs: purchases and rentals, House purchase affordability, and Second and empty homes in the Housing report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on NHS Dentistry provision and General Practices in the Health and Wellbeing report, and Energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the Energy report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on Household Expenditure in the Communities and Households report, and Employment, Redundancies and Claimant Counts (Jobseeker’s Allowance) in the Rural Economic Bulletin.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on Life Expectancy and Mortality, and Wellbeing in the Health and Wellbeing report, Crime in the Communities and Households report, Apprenticeships in the Education, Qualifications and Training report and Business Demographics and Businesses by Industry in the Rural Economic Bulletin.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on Housing costs: purchases and rentals, House purchase affordability and Housing quality in the Housing report, and Output and Productivity measured by Gross Value Added in the Rural Economic Bulletin.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on Broadband and mobile, and Access to personal transport in the Connectivity and Accessibility report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on Poverty (due to low income) in the Communities and Households report and Fuel poverty in the Energy report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on Secondary education attainment and Progression to higher education in the Education, Qualifications and Training report.
Change note: Published today, latest Rural statistics on GPs in the Health and Wellbeing report and Employment, Redundancies and Claimants Counts (Jobseeker’s Allowance) in the Rural Economic Bulletin report and the creation of a new Rural Energy report bringing together all Rural energy related statistics previously published within other Digest reports.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on Homelessness and Energy Performance Certificates (Energy Efficient Scores and achieving energy efficiency category C) in the Housing report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on Free school meals and Alternative and specialist education provision in the Education, Qualifications and Training report.
Published today, latest Rural statistics on Childcare provision in the Health and Wellbeing report.
Change note: Published today, latest Rural statistics on Housing (including house prices and a new section on land use change for housing) and the Rural Economic Bulletin (including employment, redundancies, claimant counts (JSA) and businesses).
Published today, latest Rural statistics on Health and Wellbeing (including Suicide rates, NHS dentistry provision, General Practices, Loneliness, and Volunteering and charity).
Published today, latest Rural statistics on School inspections, Apprenticeships and on-the-job training and Workforce education levels.
Published today, updates to the Housing, Communities and Households and Connectivity and Accessibility Digest sections.
Published today, latest rural statistics on Transport & travel, Access to services, Employment, Redundancies and Productivity.
Published today, latest rural statistics on life expectancy, wellbeing and energy costs.
Published today, latest rural statistics on poverty due to low income, fuel poverty, employment, earnings, redundancies and claimant count.
The Housing theme from the Statistical Digest of Rural England has been published today, providing the latest rural statistics on various aspects of housing stock, homelessness, house prices, second and empty homes and energy performance certificates.
Published today, the latest release of the Digest which has been restructured into thematic reports and incorporates the previously separate publication the Rural Economic Bulletin. Updates included in this release cover Housing, Education and Communities and Households
Published today, latest rural statistics on fuel poverty.
Published today, latest rural statistics on Productivity measured by Gross Value Added (contribution by industry) and Wellbeing.
Published today, latest statistics on productivity, transport and travel, and crime in rural areas.
Published today, May 2022 edition of the Digest including latest rural statistics on businesses, housing and education.
Published today, latest rural statistics on businesses, life expectancy and potential years life lost.
Published today, latest statistics on housing completions and skills in rural areas.
Published today, latest edition of the Statistical Digest of Rural England, including latest data on home working in rural areas.
Published today, latest statistics on loneliness, feelings about the local neighbourhood, and volunteering in rural areas.
Publication of the November 2021 edition.
Publication of local authority level data tables of key Digest datasets.
Publication of the October 2021 edition of the Statistical Digest of Rural England.
Update: The September 2021 edition of the Statistical Digest of Rural England has been published.
The August 2021 edition of the Statistical Digest of Rural England has been published.
We’ve changed how we’ve organised rural statistics and updated the content following Lord Cameron’s review of rural proofing.
The 2014 Broadband speed data have been reissued as a result of a minor revision to the analysis. The average speed results were unaffected in all cases except for rural town and fringe in a sparse setting and rural villages, where the average speeds increased by 1Mbit/s compared with the previously reported figures.
The March 2016 edition of the Statistical Digest of Rural England has been published.
The January 2016 edition of the Statistical Digest of Rural England has been published. This edition includes updates to productivity measured by Gross Value Added (GVA).
The November 2015 edition of the Statistical Digest of Rural England includes updates to secondary and higher education and net additions to housing stock.
The latest Statistical Digest of Rural England published today includes updates to rural investment and rural access to services.
The 'Statistical Digest for Rural England – July edition' will not be released at 09:30 on 30 July as announced. This is to allow further time for content development and analysis. The next release will be the 'Statistical Digest for Rural England – September edition', due to be released on 24th September.
Statistical Digest of Rural England - June 2015 edition v2 (updated with 2013/14 migration)
June 2015 edition of the Statistical Digest of Rural England has been published.
May 2015 edition of the Statistical Digest for Rural England published.
The latest edition of the Statistical Digest of Rural England has been published.
The March 2015 edition of the Statisitcal Digest of Rural England has been published.
Latest Statistical Digest of Rural England published which includes updates to rural productivity (Gross Value Added (GVA))
Latest version of the Statistical Digest of Rural England with updates on infant mortality, secondary education, earnings and private rent providers is available.
Statistical Digest of Rural England 2014 includes the latest rural poverty statistics.
January 2014 Statistical Digest of Rural England published.
Latest Statistical Digest for Rural England 2013 published today, featuring updates for economic activity, housing, accessibility and population statistics for rural settlements. A special report covering the 2011 Census results for Rural England has also been published today.