New research has revealed that the North East is less able to withstand and recover from crises like Covid and the cost of living than the rest of the country.
Analysis carried out by Health Equity North has found that Yorkshire and the North East have the lowest resilience scores.
On top of that vulnerability rural and coastal areas showed less resilience than urban and inland areas of the country.
The work has been carried out by academics from HEN, the University of Manchester and the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester.
Repeated crises and "chronic shocks" in the UK including the global financial crisis, the social and economic impacts of leaving the European Union, Covid and ongoing cost of living crisis have prompted the research.
Dr Luke Munford, Co-Academic Director at Health Equity North, and Senior Lecturer in Health Economics at the University of Manchester, said: "The CRI provides a framework that could be used to explore associations between community resilience and health outcomes.
"This makes it a potentially valuable tool for examining inequalities in broad aspects of people’s everyday lives, therefore offering a more nuanced understanding of the factors that contribute to health inequalities.
"We hope that policymakers take advantage of this opportunity to enhance understanding of how resilient communities foster better health and well-being, providing insights for targeted public health interventions and policies that are data-driven and effectively targeted."
The average resilience index score was 83.1. The range is from 53.3 in Tendring to 108.9 in Elmbridge.
Yorkshire and the North East were the lowest regions with scores of 75.2 and 77.5 respectively.
Comparatively, London and the South East had scores of 95.2 and 87.3 respectively.
Christine Camacho, lead author and PhD Fellow at NIHR ARC-GM, said: "Understanding a community’s capacity to cope, adapt and transform in the face of adversity is critically important to create a more resilient country.
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"The Community Resilience Index we developed offers an invaluable insight into the social, economic and environmental factors that can hold communities back making them less able to overcome unexpected challenges.
"Perhaps unsurprisingly, the findings of our research highlight yet further regional inequalities with the North, rural and coastal areas among the least resilient in the country.
"Addressing these challenges requires both bottom-up approaches, such as community empowerment, and top-down strategies from central government to provide the necessary infrastructure and economic opportunities to enable these communities to thrive."
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