Your area
Portsmouth has two Westminster constituencies and fourteen wards. Every ward is compared below on eight census measures, and each constituency page carries its own wards, issues and representation.
Portsmouth North
The northern half of the city — Portsea Island north of roughly Fratton, plus Cosham, Paulsgrove, Drayton and Farlington on the mainland side.
MP: Amanda Martin (Labour)
7 wards · electorate 70,446
See this area →
ConstituencyPortsmouth South
The southern half of the city — Southsea, Old Portsmouth, the city centre, the naval base and the dockyard, plus Fratton, Milton and Eastney.
MP: Stephen Morgan (Labour)
7 wards · electorate 73,711
See this area →
Portsmouth as a whole
The whole city — Portsmouth unitary authority. Almost all official statistics are published at this level, so this is where the fullest picture is available.
See city-wide data →
Portsmouth is not one place. Charles Dickens ward has 36.2% of households deprived in two or more ways; Drayton and Farlington has 10.8%. That is a three-and-a-half-fold gap inside a single small city.
How this connects to housing pressure →Ward profile
Pick a ward to see everything published for it in one place, against the city and England.
Baffins
Portsmouth North · 15,019 residents| Measure (Census 2021) | Baffins | Portsmouth | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households deprived in 2+ ways | 15.5% | 19.4% | 18.1% |
| Social rented homes | 11.2% | 18% | 17.1% |
| Private rented homes | 16.4% | 28.6% | 20.5% |
| Overcrowded households | 2.8% | 4.4% | 4.4% |
| Residents in bad or very bad health | 4.4% | 5% | 5.2% |
| Adults with no qualifications | 17.6% | 17.4% | 18.1% |
| Adults with degree-level qualifications | 26.9% | 30% | 33.9% |
| Households with no car or van | 19.3% | 30.3% | 23.5% |
Child poverty is DWP, financial year ending 2025. Census measures are ONS, March 2021 — a lockdown snapshot that does not update, useful for how wards differ from each other rather than as this year's conditions. Red marks a measure where this ward is worse than the city average.
Every ward compared
Deprived on at least two of employment, education, health and housing at once — the census measure of compounded hardship rather than a single difficulty.
What this data is, and what it is not
Census 2021 was taken on 21 March 2021, during the third national lockdown. Student and workplace populations were displaced, and the figures do not update between censuses. Read them as a map of how wards differ from each other, not as this year's conditions.
Percentages are a published count divided by the published total for the same table and ward. The counts are ONS; the division is ours.
- ONS Census 2021 via NOMIS — TS011 households by deprivation dimensions
- ONS Census 2021 via NOMIS — TS054 tenure
- ONS Census 2021 via NOMIS — TS052 occupancy rating for bedrooms
- ONS Census 2021 via NOMIS — TS037 general health
- ONS Census 2021 via NOMIS — TS067 highest level of qualification
- ONS Census 2021 via NOMIS — TS045 car or van availability
Child poverty by ward
Correct as of Financial year ending 2025, published 26 March 2026Children under 16 in relative low income. DWP publishes two measures and they are not interchangeable — switch between them to see what housing costs do.
UK average 26% (after housing costs)
The gap between the two measures is what housing costs do to family income. Across Portsmouth's wards, deducting rent and mortgage moves child poverty by between 5 and 14 percentage points. Charles Dickens goes from 38.7% to 51.6%; Nelson from 23.4% to 37.4%. That is not a change in earnings — it is the same families, measured after they have paid to keep a roof over their heads.
Definitions, and why other sources quote different rates
Portsmouth City Council's Public Health Needs Summary quotes lower ward rates — Charles Dickens 35.9% and Paulsgrove 27.5%. Those sit with the BEFORE housing costs series, not the after-housing-costs one: DWP puts Paulsgrove at 27.8% BHC for FYE 2025 and 27.6% for FYE 2023, either of which rounds to the council figure. The council therefore appears to be quoting a before-housing-costs measure. Charles Dickens does NOT reconcile exactly against any published DWP year — the BHC series runs 37.3% to 38.7% — so a difference of roughly two points remains unexplained there, most likely a different age range or an earlier vintage. That is stated rather than smoothed over. Any figure quoted from this page should carry its measure and its year.
Scope: children aged 0 to 15 in families claiming Child Benefit and at least one other household benefit, in relative low income. Figures for 16 to 19 year olds are published separately and are not included here.
Why there isn't a postcode search yet
Ward-to-constituency allocation follows the current (2024) Westminster boundaries. Portsmouth North and Portsmouth South did not change shape in the 2023 boundary review. Where a statistic exists only for Portsmouth as a whole, that is stated rather than split across the two seats — apportioning an authority-level figure by population would produce a number that looks local but is not measured.