Scottish Government
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Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2012

Scotland's Chief Statistician today published the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2012.  The SIMD is the Scottish Government's official tool for identifying those places in Scotland suffering from multiple deprivation. It has been an important policy tool for many years, providing evidence to help target policies and resources at those places with the greatest need.

SIMD 2012 measures seven different aspects of deprivation - Employment, Income, Health, Education, Access to Services, Crime and Housing. These different 'domains' are combined to produce a single index which provides a relative ranking for each small area in Scotland from 1 (most deprived) to 6,505 (least deprived).

A new web portal has been developed to provide users with a single point of access to the SIMD 2012 publication and other helpful resources including links to interactive mapping to visualise the results of the SIMD 2012, tailored summaries of SIMD 2012 findings for Local Authorities, access to the data used to construct the index, and relevant guidance papers to understand how to use the SIMD. A short podcast is also available providing a brief introduction to the SIMD, how it is constructed, and how to use the new SIMD 2012 web portal.

Key findings from SIMD 2012 include:

* The SIMD 2012 shows that relative multiple deprivation in Scotland has become less concentrated over time. In SIMD 2004, nearly half of all datazones in the most deprived 10% across Scotland were in Glasgow City. In SIMD 2012 this has dropped to just over one third, with corresponding rises in other Local Authorities. Note that this does not provide any information on overall absolute levels of deprivation; the Index is based only upon relative rankings, and it is not possible to compare absolute levels of multiple deprivation from one index to the next.

* Glasgow City, Edinburgh City, West Lothian, Aberdeen City and South Lanarkshire have seen relatively large decreases in their share of datazones in the 15% most deprived areas in Scotland between SIMD 2009 and SIMD 2012.

* North Lanarkshire, Fife, Renfrewshire and East Ayrshire have seen relatively large increases in their share of datazones in the 15% most deprived areas in Scotland between SIMD 2009 and SIMD 2012.

* Eilean Siar, Moray, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands do not have any datazones in the 15% most deprived in the SIMD 2012. This does not mean that there is no deprivation in these areas; rather that it is not concentrated in small areas.

The full statistical publication can be accessed at http://simd.scotland.gov.uk/publication-2012/

 


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