Blackpool is 'most deprived seaside town' BBC News Report

Blackpool is the most poverty-stricken out of 31 seaside towns, the study found. Blackpool is the poorest of England's larger seaside towns, despite attracting the most visitors, a study has found.

The Office for National Statistics said it had the highest level of deprivation of 31 seaside towns analysed.Of the 31, 25 had a higher level of deprivation than the average for England as a whole.

The study, which has just been published, considered data on health, housing and employment from 2010. Among the 31, 26.9% of areas were considered deprived, compared with 20% of England overall.

Most deprived English seaside towns

Blackpool

Clacton

Hastings

Ramsgate

Margate

Hartlepool

Great Yarmouth

South Shields

Barrow-in-Furness

Sunderland

Source: Office for National Statistics study (based on 2010 data)

After Blackpool, the next most deprived towns were Clacton in Essex and Hastings in East Sussex . A spokesman for the ONS said: "Analysis has considered levels of deprivation in larger English seaside destinations, which may have once thrived on seaside resort tourism.

"There is a perception that these economies have declined and are enduring high levels of deprivation as a result of people going on holiday abroad rather than in England."  Earlier in the month government think tank the Centre for Social Justice released a report which found some seaside towns were stuck in a cycle of poverty with "severe social breakdown".

Lytham St Annes in Lancashire, Christchurch and Poole in Dorset, Worthing in West Sussex, Southport in Merseyside and Bognor Regis in West Sussex were the six towns to buck the trend with lower than average levels of deprivation.