Study purpose: Previous work has shown that out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) occur more frequently in deprived areas of England. Public access defibrillation (PAD) is a key element of the early stages of the chain of survival. However, placement of automatic external defibrillators (AED) has been questioned and are not necessarily located where they would be most required for use. This study aimed to highlight discrepancies in the characteristics of areas where AEDs are located and not located in England.Materials and methods: Details of 32,844 ambulance service registered AEDs were obtained. The address of each AED location was converted to a lower super output area (LSOA), the proxy unit of neighbourhood. Neighbourhood characteristics of each LSOA were obtained from the Office for National Statistics and Government websites. Comparisons were made between LSOAs with or without an AED using chi-square and t-test.Results: AEDs were in LSOAs that were more likely to have a significantly (p < 0.01) lower residential (33.2 vs. 49.8 per hectare) but higher working (20.5 vs. 12.8) population density, have a larger white population (87.7% vs. 85.5%), be in areas with a greater proportion of groups from higher socioeconomic classifications (33.6% vs. 29.5%), and be less deprived (higher index of multiple deprivation [IMD]; Rank: 17698 vs. 15459; Decile: 5.9 vs. 5.2).Conclusions: Whilst almost 80% of all OHCAs occur in residential areas, public access AEDs are located less frequently in these areas; evidence suggests they are not clinically/cost effective in these areas. However, they are also disproportionately placed in more affluent, less deprived, areas with lower proportions of population from non-white ethnic groups. Future PAD programmes should give preference to areas where OHCA are more likely to occur and more deprived areas of the country.