Poverty and deprivation are greater influences on how people perceive their neighbourhood than levels of ethnic diversity, researchers said yesterday.

The study by the universities of Portsmouth and Southampton examined whether a high mix of ethnic groups lowered residents’ perception of the neighbourhood.

But after analysing data from more than 36,000 people, the researchers found that other factors such as anti-social behaviour were more likely to lower people’s opinions of their local area.

Liz Twigg, principal lecturer at the University of Portsmouth who led the research, said that the degree of ethnic diversity had little or no effect on perception.

She added that this challenged the view that mixed neighbourhoods had a negative effect on social cohesion.

She said: “It has been suggested that diverse communities are less cohesive and therefore suffer from problems associated with anti-social behaviour, crime and lack of trust.

“Our research suggests that this simply isn’t true.

“In general what people think of their neighbourhood as a place to live is not strongly influenced by the level of ethnic mixing.

“What is much more important is their material circumstances – the level of deprivation or prosperity in an area.”

The research shows that a typical person living in an “average” neighbourhood is about 10 per cent more likely to perceive high levels of anti-social behaviour.

This is reduced to around five per cent in wealthier neighbourhoods but goes up to around 17 per cent for people from a more deprived area.

People who had been personal victims of crime were more than twice as likely to have a negative impression of their neighbourhood.

And those living in disadvantaged areas were more likely to perceive high levels of anti-social behaviour such as vandalism, rowdiness and drug dealing than those living in more prosperous areas.

Dr Twigg said: “Although perceptions of anti-social behaviour do have a basis in actual levels of crime, the research showed that neighbourhood socio-economic circumstance is just as important.

“In essence, it would appear that your living conditions, individual material household circumstances and immediate surroundings have a strong influence on your view of the world outside your front door.

“Your age, social class and the type of housing you live in will significantly affect your personal point of view, but there is no evidence that ethnic diversity has strong negative social effects.

“If anything the opposite is true and in fact those living in the most culturally mixed neighbourhood had more positive thoughts about national crime trends.”

The study found that in very mixed neighbourhoods there was minor evidence of less social cohesion and trust.

Dr Twigg said: “People were slightly less inclined to believe they live in a close-knit community and may be less likely to intervene if they saw someone in trouble.

“But where there is a negative effect it is small and always outweighed by neighbourhood deprivation.”

She added that perceptions appeared to be as important as actual experience because it influenced people’s behaviour and affected their choice of where they lived, the schools they chose and also influenced neighbourhood reputation.

She suggested that governments and local authorities could have more influence over how neighbourhoods were viewed by focusing less on the mix of people in an area and more on the social and economic circumstances facing communities.

The research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, was based on data from the British Crime Survey, a Home Office survey in which adults were asked about their experiences of and views on crime, anti-social behaviour, levels of neighbourhood trust and whether they felt they could call on their neighbours to help solve community problems.