Townsend Score

An excel spreadsheet template for Townsend scores is available. 

  The method of calculation is as follows;

Step 1: The following variables are extracted from the 1991 Census;

V1  =  % economically active residents aged 16-59/64 who are unemployed
 V2  =  % private households which do not possess a car
V3  =  % private households which are not owner-occupied
V4  =  % private households with more than one person per room

Step 2:  The distributions of the extracted variables are 'normalised' using the following transformations;

N1  =  LN(V1+1)
N2  =  LN(V2+1)
N3  =  SQRT(V3)
N4  =  LN(V4+1)

Step 3:   The variables are standardised by subtracting the mean and dividing by the standard deviation;

S1  =  (N1 - mean of N1)/ S.D. of N1
S2  =  (N2 - mean of N2)/ S.D. of N2
S3  =  (N3 - mean of N3)/ S.D. of N3
S4  =  (N4 - mean of N4)/ S.D. of N4

Step 4:  The Townsend Score is calculated by summing the standardised variables; i.e.    Townsend Score =  S1 + S2 + S3 + S4.