Where rent and population pulled apart
Every local authority ranked by the gap between its rent change and its population change over each series’ own latest published year. Both changes are shown for every area, with the periods on hover; the gap is one minus the other, in percentage points of change. Areas missing a year-earlier value on either side are left out, never treated as zero.
A gap is not an explanation. Two series can pull apart for reasons neither one records — a different mix of homes sold, a survey’s sampling, a boundary quirk. This page says where they diverged, not why.
Largest gaps: average private rent outpacing population
| Area | rent change | population change | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kirklees | +12.7% | +0.9% | +11.8 points |
| Tewkesbury | +13% | +2.4% | +10.6 points |
| Folkestone and Hythe | +11% | +0.8% | +10.2 points |
| West Lindsey | +10.9% | +1% | +9.9 points |
| Oldham | +11% | +1.4% | +9.5 points |
| Powys | +9.7% | +0.3% | +9.4 points |
| Wolverhampton | +11.2% | +2.1% | +9.2 points |
| Dover | +9.7% | +0.8% | +8.9 points |
| Knowsley | +10.3% | +1.8% | +8.5 points |
| Bolton | +9.8% | +1.5% | +8.3 points |
| North West Leicestershire | +9.8% | +1.5% | +8.2 points |
| Caerphilly | +8.3% | +0.1% | +8.2 points |
| Redditch | +8.4% | +0.4% | +8.1 points |
| Test Valley | +8.4% | +0.6% | +7.8 points |
| Great Yarmouth | +8.1% | +0.3% | +7.8 points |
| Derbyshire Dales | +7.4% | −0.3% | +7.7 points |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | +9.7% | +2.3% | +7.5 points |
| Isle of Wight | +7.7% | +0.3% | +7.4 points |
| Bridgend | +7.7% | +0.4% | +7.2 points |
| Newcastle-under-Lyme | +8.4% | +1.1% | +7.2 points |
The other end: population outpacing average private rent
| Area | rent change | population change | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waverley | −3.1% | +1.2% | −4.3 points |
| Wyre Forest | −2.4% | +0.7% | −3.1 points |
| Hartlepool | −0.5% | +2.3% | −2.9 points |
| Runnymede | −1.7% | +1.1% | −2.9 points |
| Kingston upon Thames | −1.2% | +1.1% | −2.3 points |
| Woking | −1.7% | +0.6% | −2.3 points |
| Brighton and Hove | −1% | +1% | −2 points |
| Broxtowe | −0.9% | +0.8% | −1.8 points |
| Westminster | −2% | −0.3% | −1.7 points |
| Dacorum | +0.3% | +1.7% | −1.4 points |
| West Oxfordshire | +0.1% | +1.4% | −1.4 points |
| Merthyr Tydfil | −1% | +0.2% | −1.3 points |
| East Cambridgeshire | +0.6% | +1.7% | −1.2 points |
| Uttlesford | +0.2% | +1.3% | −1.1 points |
| Worthing | +0% | +0.9% | −0.9 points |
| Vale of White Horse | +1.7% | +2.4% | −0.8 points |
| Exeter | +1.2% | +2% | −0.8 points |
| North Devon | −0.1% | +0.6% | −0.7 points |
| Swale | +0.9% | +1.4% | −0.5 points |
| Forest of Dean | +0.4% | +0.8% | −0.4 points |
316 local authorities have a published value and a value from a year earlier in both series. Each change is Civometry arithmetic on two published figures; the levels come from the series’ own publishers. Changes are nominal — inflation affects both sides of a money pair, but not necessarily equally. ASHE pay figures for small areas carry wide confidence intervals: a double-digit one-year swing in one authority’s median pay is often sampling, not economics, so read extreme rows as candidates to check, not conclusions.