North South Divide in England: Analysis using Living Standards and Food Costs Survey

This report analyses the North South Divide in England using data from the Living Standards and Food Costs Survey. The report uses descriptive and inferential statistics to evaluate the differences in home ownership, average weekly household income, and occupation type between North and South England. The study concludes that the North South Divide is present in England and recommends the involvement of more variables for a better understanding of the divide.

A short research report on the
North/South Divide using data from the
Living Standards and Food Costs Survey
a large nationally representative survey

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
FINDING.........................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The ‘North South divide’ in England is being defined as the differences being present in the southern
and northern England. On the different basis like cultural, social, demographic and many other basis, there is a
lot of difference within the working pattern and living standard of people in both north and south England.
Thus, there is a necessity to identify the areas on which these differences are more and to develop the strategies
for removing the difference within the north and south divide.
Aim
“To analyse whether there is north south divide present in England or not.”
FINDING
Descriptive statistics
Case new HH Weekly Income HH Income
Source
Internet connection Economic position
N Valid 2840 2840 2840 2840 2840
Missing 0 0 0 0 0
Mean 7486.6342 717.4727 1.1637 1.1282 1.3827
Median 7507.5000 707.8100 1.0000 1.0000 1.0000
Mode 382.00a 1184.99 1.00 1.00 1.00
Std.
Deviation 4346.13185 350.06940 .37010 .33434 .78936
Range 14978.00 1164.69 1.00 1.00 3.00
Minimum 16.00 20.30 1.00 1.00 1.00
Maximum 14994.00 1184.99 2.00 2.00 4.00
Occupation
type
Sex
HRP
Household
Size
Number
Adults
Number
Children
North South
England
Homeownership
N Valid 2840 2840 2840 2840 2840 2840 2840
Missing 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Mean 2.0053 1.3637 2.5926 1.9032 1.6331 1.5032 .6951
Median 2.0000 1.0000 2.0000 2.0000 1.0000 2.0000 1.0000
Mode 1.00 1.00 2.00 2.00 1.00 2.00 1.00
Std.
Deviation 1.04848 .48116 1.19492 .69527 .82059 .50008 .46046
Range 3.00 1.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00 1.00
Minimum 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 .00
Maximum 4.00 2.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00

The descriptive statistics outlines that fact that there is total of 2840 as the sample who have answered
all the questions being asked relating to different factors of north south divide. With the analysis, it can be
stated that average people belongs to south region and are less in north area.
Is there a north south divide in home ownership in England?
North South England * Homeownership Cross tabulation
Count
Homeownership Total
Does not own home
(private or public)
Owns home
North South England North 411 1000 1411
South 455 974 1429
Total 866 1974 2840
With the help of the chi- square test it can be evaluated that more people living in south region that is
1429 out of total of 2840. Further with deeper analysis it was evaluated that people who own more home is in
north region that is 1000 out of total of 1974. Moreover, it was evaluated that overall there are less people who
do not have home either private or public in comparison to the people who are having home (Beard and et.al.,
2017).
Is there a North South Divide in average weekly household income in England?
Correlations
HH Weekly Income North South England
HH Weekly Income
Pearson Correlation 1 .109**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 2840 2840
North South England
Pearson Correlation .109** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 2840 2840
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
By evaluating the above correlation matrix, it is clear that the relation between income and north south
England is low that is 10.9 %. This may be particularly because of the reason the level of income does not

define the north south England divide. The reason behind this fact is that it is not necessary that the income is
being divided on basis of the area that is north or south (Minton and McCartney, 2018). Thus, there is not any
divide in the weekly income of the people on the basis of the north south region in England.
Is there a North South Divide in occupation type in England?
Model Summary
Model R R Square Adjusted R
Square
Std. Error of the
Estimate
1 .076a .006 .005 1.04566
a. Predictors: (Constant), North South England
ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1
Regression 17.841 1 17.841 16.317 .000b
Residual 3103.079 2838 1.093
Total 3120.921 2839
a. Dependent Variable: Occupation type
b. Predictors: (Constant), North South England
Coefficientsa
Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized
Coefficients
t Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
1 (Constant) 2.244 .062 36.089 .000
North South England -.159 .039 -.076 -4.039 .000
a. Dependent Variable: Occupation type
By the analysis of the regression analysis, it is clear that there is relationship being present within the
occupation type and the north and south divide within England. The correlation being present in both the
variables is 7.6 % which is very low. Along with this, R square, is 0.6 % which implies that any change in the
independent factor will cause a 0.6 % of change in the dependent factor. Further the hypothesis is being proved
that is the significance value is 0.00 which is less than the standard that is 0.05. Hence, this implies that the

alternate hypothesis is being accepted that is there is north south divide in occupation type in England. In
support of this, Lloyd, (2017) states that when the person comes for seeking the job then at that time the
background that is whether person belong to north or south and then provide the job.
CONCLUSION
The above report concludes the fact that the north and south divide is present in England and this is
based on different factors like cultural, social, ethical and others. The study also evaluated that the use of
descriptive and inferential statistics is important for analysing the working in better and effective manner. The
above all test highlighted the fact that there is a north and south divide being present and all the variables stated
that there is a differentiation in all the facts on basis of north and south area.
Further the limitation identified within the study was that the sample size was very large and this might
affect the working of the whole study to a great extent.
The recommended strategy for improving the study is to involve some more variables within the study.
this is necessary as involvement of all the other variables will assist in proving the objective in better manner
(Imoh, Bourdillon and Meichsner, eds., 2018). This will provide much wider range of data and will assist in
proving the objective more precisely.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Beard, E., and et.al., 2017. Healthier central England or North–South divide? Analysis of national survey data
on smoking and high-risk drinking. BMJ open. 7(3). p.e014210.
Imoh, A. T. D., Bourdillon, M. and Meichsner, S. eds., 2018. Global Childhoods beyond the North-South
Divide. Springer.
Lloyd, C. D., 2017. Scale, geographic inequalities and the North–South divide in England and Wales, 2001–11.
In The Routledge Handbook of Census Resources, Methods and Applications (pp. 421-434). Routledge.
Minton, J. W. and McCartney, G., 2018. Is there a north–south mortality divide in England or is London the
outlier?. The Lancet Public Health. 3(12). pp.e556-e557.