The areas of the UK with the lowest higher education participation rates are also home to the worst productivity levels, according to new research.
Authors say the data could support policymakers in determining how education investment could help increase productivity in areas that have faced relative economic decline in recent decades.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) examined the association between productivity and skill level within the population at local authority level.
It found that the group of 38 local authorities with the lowest proportion of highly skilled residents also had, on average, the lowest productivity levels.
