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Scotland's Chief Statistician today published the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2009.

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation is one of Scottish Government's key analytical outputs - providing a measure of the extent to which multiple deprivation is concentrated in particular areas. It has been an important policy tool for many years. The Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics system means it is now possible to update the index much more frequently than the decennial Census, the previous source, allowed.

SIMD 2009 divides Scotland up into 6,505 small geographical areas (called 'datazones'), with a median population size of 767. These are ranked from 1 (most deprived) to 6,505 (least deprived) using 38 indicators of deprivation across seven categories or 'domains' - Income, Employment, Health, Education, Geographic Access to Services, Housing and Crime.

The SIMD 2004, 2006 and 2009 are all based on a consistent statistical geography - the data zone - and so we are able to look at change over time in the relative distribution of Scotland's deprived areas.

It is imperative to note that the rankings of data zones within the index are relative and so a data zone with a more deprived rank in SIMD 2009 may not necessarily have become more deprived in absolute terms, rather its relative position to other areas has worsened. Guidance on the appropriate use of the SIMD is available in the SIMD 2009 Guidance leaflet.

The SIMD 2009 General Report contains a preliminary analysis of relative change in deprived areas between SIMD 2004, 2006 and 2009 and each of the SIMD domains. A 15 per cent cut-off is used to identify the highest concentrations of multiple deprivation in Scotland. Some of the main statistical findings from the publication are listed below.

Points to watch

• Data from 2007 and 2008 means the recent economic downturn is not picked up but it is unlikely to have a large effect on the relative differences across Scotland.
• As the SIMD is a relative measure, there will always be a 15 per cent most deprived - if a datazone moves out another will move in.
• The least deprived area is not the most affluent, it just lacks deprivation eg in the income domain there is a lack of benefit claimants but they may not be rich.
• If a local authority or other areas has no datazones in the 15 per cent most deprived it does not mean it has no deprivation, just no concentrations of multiple deprivation eg 64 per cent of income deprived people live out with the most deprived areas.
• Not all people who are deprived live in deprived areas. The index measures concentrations of deprivation.
• Changes have been made to methodology between versions so care is needed when comparing over time eg addition of crime domain in SIMD 2006, inclusion of tax credit data in SIMD 2009 income domain.
• The Index is relative ie shows an area is more or less deprived than another one but not how much more deprived. Income and Employment domains and the indicators used to construct them can be used to look at absolute levels of deprivation in more detail.

Overall SIMD 2009:

• There have been continued and marked improvements in Glasgow but it still has nearly a third of deprived areas. Numbers of datazones in the 5 per cent, 10 per cent and 15 per cent most deprived fell between SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006 and have fallen again in SIMD 2009. (General Report Chapter 3)
• Multiple deprivation is becoming less concentrated geographically as improvements have been seen in other Local Authorities as well as Glasgow. 5 Local Authorities contain 57 per cent of the 15 per cent most deprived datazones in Scotland in SIMD 2009. This is a fall from 67 per cent in SIMD 2004. (General Report Chapter 3)
• Concentrations of multiple deprivation within the most deprived datazones has fallen slightly compared with SIMD 2006. In SIMD 2006, 52 per cent of datazones in the 15 per cent most deprived were in the most deprived on 5 or more domains, this has fallen to 48 per cent in SIMD 2009. (General Report Chapter 3)
• The majority of areas that moved out of the 15 per cent most deprived in SIMD 2006 have remained out, demonstrating maintained improvement. (Of the datazones that moved out of the 15 per cent most deprived between SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006, 98 (82 per cent) have remained out of the 15 per cent most deprived on SIMD 2009.) (General Report Chapter 3)
• Four datazones in five have remained in the most deprived. (81 per cent of datazones in the most deprived 15 per cent in SIMD 2009 were in the most deprived in the two previous versions of the SIMD showing sustained concentrations of deprivation) (General Report Chapter 3)