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Show me the money: Income inequality and segregation in UK cities
Author(s) -
Cauvain Jenni,
Long Gavin,
Whiteley Timothy,
Farcot Etienne
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/area.12784
Subject(s) - economic inequality , inequality , demographic economics , gini coefficient , income inequality metrics , poverty , economics , household income , population , neighbourhood (mathematics) , income distribution , conurbation , geography , development economics , economic growth , sociology , demography , economy , mathematical analysis , mathematics , archaeology
The social geography of cities is argued to be changing globally; rising economic inequality is associated with increasing segregation. Yet, income inequality has been predominantly mobilised through national and regional imaginaries. In cities, a number of factors such as the normative policy motivation to intervene in ‘disadvantaged’ neighbourhoods, have led to (concentrations of) poverty becoming prioritised in empirical studies of household income. This paper addresses a gap in understanding the relationship between local income inequality and the segregation of high‐income households at the urban and neighbourhood scales in England and Wales. The results highlight that wealthier cities and districts (Cambridge, Winchester, and Rushcliffe in the Nottingham conurbation) have higher income inequality (Gini), but are less segregated (Index of Dissimilarity). Lower average income cities tend to be more segregated, due to self‐segregation of high‐income households into ‘pockets of affluence.’ These results confirm that high‐income households are the most segregated group in our sample, consistent with trends in global urban segregation patterns. The research also highlights just how prevalent low income is in urban neighbourhoods, making the case for high income as the designated minority population in segregation studies. In our detailed case study of Nottingham, income homogeneity is typical of areas with high deprivation. Neighbourhoods with a high Gini coefficient could be described as mixed income: the Gini is raised by the presence of high‐income households in urban neighbourhoods. We argue that the Gini therefore offers potential as an indicator of social mix in urban studies. These results are based on an experimental household income dataset released by the Office of National Statistics, with analysis of all core cities in England and Wales, alongside Derby, Leicester, Cambridge, Southampton, and Winchester, followed by a detailed case study of Nottingham (UK) and its extended suburban boundary.