Objective <p>We hypothesised that socioeconomic deprivation as determined by an area measure would be an important risk factor for preterm birth in a contemporary cohort.</p> Methods <p>A retrospective study was carried out across two tertiary maternity hospitals in Ireland between 2018 and 2022 representing approximately 27% of all births in Ireland. Non stillborn infants whose address could be matched to a small area deprivation index (Haase-Pratschke (HP) Index) were included in the analysis. A combination of non-parametric and parametric tests were used to examine the impact of socioeconomic deprivation.</p> Results <p>80,231 births were identified from 2018 to 2022. After exclusion criteria were applied, 912 very preterm births were available for analysis. There was a significant difference in population distributions of area level socioeconomic measures of neonates born &lt;32 weeks and those born &gt;=32 weeks(<i>p</i> &lt; 0·001).</p> Conclusion <p>Socioeconomic deprivation remains an important determinant of very preterm birth although has limited effect on acute neonatal outcomes.</p>