Runnymede’s Social Characteristics

Deprivation, Health and Wellbeing

Generally, the health of Runnymede’s population remains better than the UK average, and trends show an increase in adults who are physically active. Childhood obesity levels have fallen slightly, in line with national trends.

Runnymede has relative overall low deprivation, but has higher levels of deprivation compared to Surrey (ranking third most deprived of Surrey’s individual council areas in the 2025 Indices of Deprivation, with pockets of deprivation present in certain areas of the Runnymede area). Trends show that deprivation within the ‘living environment’ and ‘barriers to housing and services’ sub-domains is worsening.

Crime rates and levels of crime deprivation have risen recently, and are higher compared to the rest of Surrey, but are lower relative to the rest of England.

Enter ‘Runnymede’ in the ‘Area’ field.

ONS Census Maps: General health

Deprivation & Health Headlines:

51.2% of people in Runnymede rated themselves as having ‘very good health’ (2021 Census, a 1.6% improvement on the 2011 Census).

The proportion of Runnymede residents describing their health as ‘very bad’ remained 0.8%, while those describing their health as ‘bad’ fell from 3.2% to 2.9%.

Runnymede has an IMD rank of 22,879. This means that Runnymede has higher levels of deprivation compared to Surrey (25,256) and lower levels of deprivation compared to England (16,746). A lower rank indicates that an area is experiencing higher levels of deprivation.

Pockets of relative deprivation exist: the Pooley Green and Egham Hythe area of Egham, Blays Lane/Bond Street area of Englefield Green, Longcross & Lyne, Pyrcroft Road area of Chertsey and Green Lane area of Addlestone are amongst the 40% most deprived areas of England with the Addlestone Park area of Addlestone within the 30% most deprived and Ashwood Road/Beechtree Avenue in Englefield Green within the most 20% deprived areas of England. Surrey County Council has identified Englefield Green West and Chertsey St Ann’s as ‘key neighbourhoods’ for special prioritisation, due to their poor health outcomes in Surrey.

The indices are made up of a number of deprivation typologies and Runnymede scores well for income (246), employment (261), health deprivation & disability (238) and education, skills and training (261); but it does not score so well against crime (128), living environment (114) and barriers to housing & services (122).

There are 4,802 people in Runnymede who are disabled under the equality act and whose day to day activities are limited a lot. This is 5.45% of the working population, which is higher than Surrey (5.14%) and lower than South East (6.26%).

There were 9,374 total crime offences in Runnymede between Jun-2023 to May-2024, with the overall crime rate being 105.9 per 1,000 population. This has increased since 2018/19 and is higher than the average across Surrey.

What does this mean for the Local Plan?

The new Local Plan should aim to address areas of deprivation in the Runnymede area where unemployment and unsuitable housing are an issue.

The new Local Plan, as far as it is able to do so, and without repeating national decision-making policies (NDMPs) should retain, strengthen and/or implement policies/actions to prioritise health & well-being, through encouraging and/or creating opportunities for physical exercise for all abilities, creating healthier choices, providing affordable housing to meet identified needs, as well as housing for different groups of the population (including well-adapted housing), and by providing a good quality built environment and well-designed communities which are safe and accessible by walking, cycling and public transport.

When selecting sites for development, consider the extent to which health and wellbeing can be protected or enhanced e.g. by measuring access to healthcare facilities or open space.

Sources of further baseline information:

The Runnymede Housing and Economic Development Needs Assessment (2026) identifies additional baseline information, and provides a detailed analysis of key trends.

Runnymede Housing and Economic Development Needs Assessment (HEDNA)

Detailed baseline information, an analysis of existing conditions and future trends and how this information will inform the new Local Plan can be found in Chapter 4 of the SA Scoping Report available  at Evidence Base weboage.

Sources of other useful information: