Discover more about your parish with data and mapping tools
Tools and resources to help you understand your parish’s context
THE FOLLOWING FREE RESOURCES ARE available to help you learn about the wider context of your parish, or parishes in your diocese.
Parish census and deprivation dashboards
These 1-page documents show summary census and deprivation information for each Church of England parish. They also include a comparison between each parish and its deanery and diocese, and with the country as a whole.
Interactive parish map
This map shows each Church of England parish, linked to summary census and deprivation information. It can be used to see information about a particular parish, or to compare several parishes. By default, parishes are colour-coded according to deprivation, but it is simple, at the click of a few buttons, to display other variables.
Census and deprivation data spreadsheets
These spreadsheets contain detailed parish-level census and deprivation data, including additional information not included in the dashboards or maps. They will suit anyone who wants to see all the available information at once!
Church Urban Fund (CUF) Look Up Tool
The CUF Look Up Tool can help your church:
- Identify and understand who lives in your parish, and the real issues they may face, such as poverty, housing and education.
- Discover new opportunities to reach your community.
- Guide your church’s mission to respond to need with loving service, ensuring your initiatives are targeted and effective.
Enter your parish into the CUF Look Up Tool and get a clear picture of poverty in your community and how it compares in your diocese and across England.
The Look Up Tool draws on data from the Index of Multiple Deprivation, the census and the Church of England’s parish boundaries.
The guide can help you understand where the data comes from, how to interpret your results, what the data might mean for people living in your parish and how you might respond through prayer, mission and ministry.
Look Up Tool – case study
The leadership team at Church On The Corner in North London used the Look Up Tool to help them get to know their community and plan for action.
“The resources also helped us identify specific socio-economic and wealth needs in the community. We were aware of the wealth inequality in our area but this experience was an opportunity to drill down into specific issues which can be associated.
“We considered poor mental health, child deprivation and single parent families when identifying needs in this area. Rather than saying we should do this for our community and work in isolation, this gave us an opportunity to think about where the needs were and join in with the community.
“A number of our congregation volunteer locally and at the foodbank and as church members we can resource something like the foodbank which is meeting significant need in this area.”
