Area deprivation is a term used broadly to describe one or more negative factors that come together in the same time and space to create a blighted and undesirable parcel of land, city, or region. The risks associated with area deprivation typically encompass the same factors that cause the deprivation, including poverty, unemployment, disenfranchisement, and poor health.

Although the correlation between poverty and poor health has been around for a while, the term area deprivation can be loosely traced back to the 19th century, when mortality rates began to be seriously tracked and recorded, including factors like when, where, and how people were dying.