Community Needs Index: how to access and how it’s evolving

In this blog, Deputy Director of C4, Ian Wilson, and Local Trust’s senior quantitative researcher, Jack Loughnane, explore how the Community Needs Index has been used, what the next phase of development could mean for understanding communities across the UK, and how you can access the data.

What is the Community Needs Index? 

The Community Needs Index (CNI) is a quantitative measure of social infrastructure, social capital, community participation and social connectedness. The data is produced at a neighbourhood level and derived from open data. Local Trust commissioned the Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI) to develop a CNI for England in 2018, and it was updated in 2023.  

The CNI combines over 50 indicators under three domains:  

• Civic Assets 

• Connectivity 

• Active and Engaged Community.  

The importance of considering community need alongside indicators of deprivation has been highlighted by previous research. In 2020, OCSI identified 225 neighbourhoods that have a double disadvantage: areas that fall into the top 10 per cent on both the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) and weak social infrastructure. This research found that these areas experience notably poor outcomes – not only compared to affluent areas, but also compared to equally deprived places where a base layer of social infrastructure has been retained. 

How to access the data 

With the aim of increasing its use, we are pleased to be broadening access to the Community Needs Index (CNI). From June 2026, the current version of the CNI will be publicly available via the UK Data Service repository and will no longer require a data sharing agreement to be accessed. 

How the CNI has been used 

Until now, Local Trust and OCSI have been working to share the data as widely as possible to stakeholders working towards public good. The data has been accessed and analysed by a wide range of users, including PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and university lecturers; voluntary sector researchers, data analysts and policy advisers; and public sector advisors and employees in the House of Commons.  

Examples of uses include investigating drivers of high household energy consumption at a regional level, identifying areas with high levels of digital exclusion, and analysing predictors of local variation in healthy life expectancy. 

The CNI has also been used widely at a policy level. It was cited as a measure of Social Capital in the 2022 Levelling Up White Paper and has subsequently been used in the delivery of a range of levelling up funding programmes.  

The CNI was also a key tool in the selection of Pride in Place areas. The index was combined with the IMD to identify areas which suffer from a lack of material resource and access to opportunities, as well as limited community infrastructure and low civic participation. 

Noel Park Big Local community event. Photo: Press Record/Local Trust

The evolution of the CNI 

Exciting work is underway to continue expanding the scope and usability of the CNI. OCSI, in collaboration with the Centre for Collaboration in Community Connectedness (C4), are working on updating the Community Needs Index to refine the indicators included and extend its coverage from just England to the whole of the UK.  

This work to extend the CNI places community connectedness at its heart. Through a review of the methodology, we are reshaping how community connections are measured, creating an enhanced Community Needs Index that better reflects how people experience life in their neighbourhoods. 

Working alongside government agencies and other data suppliers, we will co–produce a clear blueprint for a revised Community Connectedness Index, underpinned by robust data collection, validation and analysis. This will deliver new, UK–wide insights into community needs, social connections and how both change over time. 

This evidence will be made accessible and actionable, bringing together key statistics, interactive mapping and local data in one place. When made available, we will invite communities, practitioners and policymakers to use this evidence to inform decision–making, strengthen community engagement and support initiatives, such as Pride in Place: turning insight into meaningful, place–based action. 

If you wish to access the current version of the CNI, contact jack.loughnane@localtrust.org.uk