North-South divide (England)

In England, the term North–South divide refers to the cultural, economic, and social differences between:

The status of the Midlands is often disputed; geographically, most areas of the Midlands are Northern. This ambiguity also applies to parts of East Anglia. A grouping of Central England based on UK EU parliamentary constituency boundaries combines the Midlands and East Anglia.

In political terms, the South, and particularly the South-East (outside Greater London) and East Anglia, is largely centre-right, and supportive of the Conservative Party, while Northern England (particularly the towns and cities) is generally more supportive of the Labour Party.

An article in The Economist (15–21 September 2012) argued that the gap between the north and south in life expectancy, political inclinations and economics trends was growing to the extent that they were almost separate countries.

The North–South divide is not an exact line, but one that can involve many stereotypes, presumptions and other impressions of the surrounding region relative to other regions. The existence of the North–South divide is fiercely contested. Some sources claim that not only does it exist, but that it is expanding. For example, a 'Cambridge Econometrics' report of March 2006 found that economic growth above the UK average was occurring only in the South and South East England, whilst North East England showed the slowest growth. The same data has been interpreted otherwise to indicate only a very small difference. Indeed, results are highly dependent on the categories chosen for evaluation. As a generalisation, the following tend to indicate that there is some sort of north-south divide:

However, when factors such as the cost of living or urban poverty are included, the divisions are sometimes less clear.

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