Where disabled people live, and where the RDA groups are

The census counted every disabled person in England and Wales, place by place. Riding for the Disabled Association publishes where its groups are, and what each offers. This puts the two side by side.

Cities and the countryside

RDA says: “Our groups work across the UK, from cities to rural areas, bringing the joy and benefits of horses to as many people as we can”. Every one of England’s 24 counties has an RDA group on one record or both. Fewer of the big cities do: 21 of 33 London boroughs, 29 of 36 metropolitan boroughs and 32 of 59 unitary councils, many of which are cities. The largest areas where neither record shows a group are Manchester; Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole; and Nottingham.

That is a finding about where groups are, not about who rides: a group needs horses and the land to keep them, and a rider can travel to one outside their own council area. The census cannot say who does.

Where the RDA groups are

England’s counties and unitary authorities, split into five equal groups by the published measure of deprivation — the share of each area’s neighbourhoods in the most deprived tenth nationally.

There is no steady pattern with deprivation. Comparing the two ends: one is present in 22 of the 31 most deprived areas and 18 of the 30 least deprived. That is a finding about where RDA groups are, not about how much help anybody gets.

By kind of council

Every county and unitary authority, by the kind of council it is. London boroughs and metropolitan boroughs are the big cities and their conurbations; counties are mostly rural and small-town England; the unitary councils are a mix, many of them cities.

See the areas where no RDA group shows, and what that does not mean →

The groups themselves

RDA’s finder lists 430 places to ride: 381 groups and 49 riding schools RDA approves, which are businesses rather than RDA charities. 66 of them are in Scotland or Northern Ireland. 264 charities on the register for England and Wales stand behind the groups. The typical one — the median — reported income of £9,513 in its latest accounts.

What this is for

Two readers, and they want different things.

• A disabled rider, or their family. The finder is searchable here by the question they arrive with — my child would like to ride, I’d like to try carriage driving — rather than by a postcode.
• Somebody arguing about access to activities for disabled people. This counts where the groups are against where disabled people live, council by council, rather than asserting either.