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Background The first three years of life are a critical period for childhood development, with socioeconomic related factors such as inadequate stimulation, malnutrition, and exposure to adversity likely resulting in socioeconomic inequalities in early child development. However, less is known about how socioeconomic inequalities manifest in ethnically diverse, socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. This study (1) describes the prevalence of children at risk of poor early child development; (2) investigates the association between individual indicators of socioeconomic position and early child development; and (3) investigates if the association between individual indicators of socioeconomic position and early child development varies by ethnic group.Methods The Born in Bradford’s Better Start (BiBBS) cohort recruited from three inner city areas with high ethnic diversity and socioeconomic deprivation. BiBBS links to routinely collected data, including health visiting appointments with the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) when children are aged 2-years-old. For objective 2, we estimated binary logistic regression models by each socioeconomic predictor (parent education, financial management, subjective social status, and number of people to count on) and potential confounders/covariates (child sex and age, and parent language, ethnicity, country of birth). For objective 3, three additional binary logistic models with ethnicity (categorised as White British, Pakistani/South Asian, and Other) and each socioeconomic predictor tested the interaction between these variables. RStudio was used for all analyses.Results BiBBS recruited 2510 women up to March 2020; of which 1542 had an ASQ recorded. 38% of children were at risk of poor development, exceeding the national average (21%). Having a degree (OR=2.02, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.69), ‘living comfortably’ in terms of financial status (OR=2.02, 1.14 to 3.56), and number of people to count on (OR=1.07, 1.03 to 1.11) were all associated with higher odds of overall good development. There were no statistically significant interactions between socioeconomic position and ethnicity.Discussion A high proportion of children do not meet expected levels of development in this diverse, disadvantaged population. Associations between socioeconomic position and early child development were demonstrated, and this finding was consistent across White British, South Asian, and Other ethnic groups. The findings underline the need for universal preventative strategies to support parents and improve child development in such communities.