The most deprived parts of England can today be revealed as part of a unique Mirror Online series looking at the state of Britain's towns.

Our exclusive investigation has looked at a huge amount of data on issues such as crime, health and unemployment to build a picture of the state of our communities.

Our figures show a huge North-South divide with 15 of the 20 most deprived parts of the country in the North or Midlands. The vast majority of these are made of areas in the North East and North West of England.

The data reveals that many of our proud towns are struggling with Middlesbrough named as the most deprived part of England.

Burnley, Blackburn and Blackpool also feature in the ten most deprived parts of the country. Other towns such as Oldham, Rochdale and Bolton are also lagging behind the rest of the UK.

Search your area below to see how it ranks for deprivation

The least deprived communities are made up of areas in the South East such as Wokingham and Fareham.

The figures are released as Mirror Online today launches our unique five-day Town 2020 series. Every day this week we will publish a series of stories both online and in print looking at the issues facing our towns.

Speaking to Mirror Online, Middlesbrough’s Labour MP Andy McDonald said there had been "a total lack of investment for many towns and cities in the North".
Middlesbrough has been named as the most deprived area in England (
Image:
Evening Gazette)

We want to hear stories from your town. What do you think about it? Are you facing any issues? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk or call 0207 293 3018.

He added: “We’ve had the Prime Minisiter saying ‘f*** business’ and you have Tory MPs that are saying ‘you’ll have to deal with some Brexit pain.’ But it will never be their pain, it will be towns like mine that suffer."

Our reporters have visited some of Britain’s proud towns, steeped in tradition and close-knit communities but left feeling ignored for decades by the country’s politicians.
A view from St Helens in Merseyside (
Image:
CHRIS NEILL/MAVERICK PHOTOGRAPHY)

We’ve spoken to ordinary, hard-working people dealing with mental health problems, child poverty and employment issues. Politicians will also have their say on why they think our towns have suffered from a lack of investment and feeling ignored.

Our figures show that if you live in towns in the North West and North East you are likely to die earlier than people in the rest of the country, have fewer qualifications and suffer more from crime.

But we also want to focus on the positive. We'll talk to a rugby boss who is working hard to transform his town and a pop star who is proud to call his town home.

The 20 most deprived parts of England

  1. Middlesbrough
  2. Burnley
  3. Kingston upon Hull
  4. Blackburn with Darwen
  5. Stoke-on-Trent
  6. Blackpool
  7. Hackney
  8. Nottingham
  9. Thanet
  10. Hastings
  11. Great Yarmouth
  12. Manchester
  13. Oldham
  14. Leicester
  15. Rochdale
  16. North East Lincolnshire
  17. Newcastle-upon-Tyne
  18. Salford
  19. Bolton
  20. Harlow

How we compiled our deprivation figures

The Mirror combined statistics from the NHS, Office For National Statistics (ONS) and other government bodies to find out which local authorities in the country are falling behind others when it comes to health, crime, qualifications and economy.

A list of towns and cities was created for each of the four topics, which was then used to come up with an overall ranking.

The list of unhealthy areas was created by combining statistics on Health Life Expectancy, Air Pollution, Avoidable Deaths, Obesity, Smoking, Heroin Deaths, and Alcohol related hospital admissions.