This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2006
17/10/2006
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2006 was published today.
The SIMD is the Executive's official tool for identifying small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland and is relevant to policies aimed at tackling the causes and effects of area based multiple deprivation.
SIMD 2006 divides Scotland up into 6,505 small geographical areas (called 'data zones'), with a median population size of 769. These are ranked from 1 (most deprived) to 6505 (least deprived) using 37 indicators of deprivation across seven categories or domains: current income, employment, health, education, geographic access to services, housing and crime.
The SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006 are both based on a consistent statistical geography - the data zone - so, for the first time, change over time in the relative distribution of Scotland's deprived areas can be measured.
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 2006 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 2006 guidance leaflet.
The SIMD 2006 general report contains a preliminary analysis of relative change in deprived areas between SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006 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 report include:
Overall SIMD 2006:
- Glasgow City, North Lanarkshire, and South Lanarkshire have seen relatively large decreases in their share of data zones in the 15 per cent most deprived areas in Scotland between the SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006
- Fife, Aberdeen City, Highland and Inverclyde have seen relatively large increases in their share of data zones in the 15 per cent most deprived areas in Scotland between the SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006
- The 15 per cent most deprived data zones in SIMD 2006 contain 36 per cent (257,041) of Scotland's income deprived population and 33 per cent (134,347) of Scotland's employment deprived working age population
- Local authority areas with the largest share of the 15 per cent most deprived in Scotland are Glasgow City (34 per cent), North Lanarkshire (nine per cent), City of Edinburgh (seven per cent) and South Lanarkshire (six per cent)
- Local authorities that have a large proportion of their data zones in the 15 per cent most deprived in Scotland are: Glasgow City (48 per cent), Inverclyde (38 per cent), Dundee City (30 per cent), West Dunbartonshire (28 per cent), Clackmannanshire (23 per cent) and North Lanarkshire (20 per cent)
- Eilean Siar, Moray, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands do not have any data zones in the SIMD 2006 15 per cent most deprived. This does not mean there is no deprivation in these areas rather that it is not concentrated in small areas
Employment Domain:
The employment domain is a measure of 'exclusion from the world of work' and identifies the proportion of the working age population who are unemployed or are not involved in the labour market due to ill health or disability. Unlike the other domains in SIMD 2006, all the indicators used to construct the employment domain are identical for SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006. Therefore, it is possible to assess change in terms of both the data zone ranks (relative change) and in terms of changes in the numbers and distribution of employment deprived people (absolute change).
- The number of employment deprived people in Scotland has fallen from 435,037 to 409,907 a drop of 25,130 (just under six per cent) between the SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006
- In the SIMD 2006, 30 per cent of people living in the 15 per cent most deprived areas were employment deprived, compared with 10 per cent in the rest of Scotland. Glasgow City continues to show the highest percentage of working age population who are employment deprived (20 per cent) but has seen the largest improvement in the proportion of working age population who are employment deprived (fall of three per cent from 23 per cent of the working age population in SIMD 2004)
- Aberdeen City has seen the largest increase in the proportion of the working age population who are employment deprived (an increase of 811 people) from 9 per cent to 10 per cent of the working age population of Aberdeen City
Current Income Domain:
In SIMD 2006, the income domain counts claimants (and their dependants) of income support, guaranteed pension credits and job seekers allowance.
- In the SIMD 2006, 35 per cent of people living in the 15 per cent most income deprived areas were income deprived, compared with 10 per cent in the rest of Scotland
- Inverclyde and Dundee City show relatively large increases in the number of data zones in the 15 per cent most income deprived areas, while North and South Lanarkshire show decreases
- Within Glasgow City one in four people (25 per cent of the population) are income deprived whilst, across Scotland, one in seven people (14 per cent of the population) are income deprived
Health Domain:
- Glasgow City, Dundee City, Renfrewshire, Argyll & Bute and West Dunbartonshire have shown a decrease in the number of data zones in the 15 per cent most health deprived data zones between the SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006
- North Lanarkshire, West Lothian, Highland, South Lanarkshire, and Stirling have shown the largest increases in the number of data zones of the 15 per cent most health deprived data zones between the SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006
Education, Skills and Training Domain:
- Glasgow City contains almost a third (31 per cent) of the 15 per cent most education deprived data zones in Scotland in the SIMD 2006. North Lanarkshire and City of Edinburgh have the next greatest share with nine per cent each
- Glasgow City, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire and West Lothian have shown a relative decrease in the number of data zones the 15 per cent most education deprived data zones between SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006
- South Lanarkshire, Falkirk and Dundee City have shown a relative increase in the number of data zones in the 15 per cent most education deprived data zones between SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006
Crime Domain:
This is the first time a crime domain has been included in the SIMD. The SIMD crime domain measures the rate of recorded SIMD crime at small area level using 2004 recorded crime data and is based on five indicators of broad crime types: crimes of violence; drug offences; domestic house breaking; minor assault; and vandalism. The indicators used were chosen on the basis of relevance to impact on the local neighbourhood and availability of data. The crime domain score is a sum of the recorded crimes in each of the indicators and is referred to as 'SIMD crime' rather than total crime, as it does not include all recorded crimes.
- Over 30 per cent of data zones in Glasgow City are in the 15 per cent most deprived areas in terms of SIMD crime
- Over 20 per cent of the data zones in the Fife police force area are in the 15 per cent most deprived areas in terms of SIMD crime
- In the 15 per cent most deprived areas in terms of crime, there is roughly one SIMD crime per six people compared to one SIMD crime per 26 people in the rest of Scotland
- The rate of total SIMD crime is highest in large urban areas, with 657 SIMD crimes per 10,000 population
- The rate of SIMD crime is higher in remote small towns than in accessible small towns
SIMD 2006 is based on 37 indicators based mainly on 2004 and 2005 data. The SIMD 2004 was based on 31 indicators based mainly on 2001 and 2003 data.
The indicators are:
Income:
- Adults in Income Support households
- Children in Income Support households
- Adults in Guarantee Pension Credit households
- Adults in Job Seekers Allowance households
- Children in Job Seekers Allowance households
Employment:
- Unemployment Claimant Count averaged over 12 months
- Working age Incapacity Benefit recipients
- Working age Severe Disablement Allowance recipients
- Compulsory New Deal participants - New Deal for the under 25s and New Deal for the 25+ not included in the unemployment claimant count
Crime:
- Recorded SIMD crime rates for the following indicators:
- Domestic house breaking
- Drug offences
- Minor assault
- Crimes of violence
- Vandalism
Education:
- School pupil absences
- Pupil performance on SQA at stage 4
- Working age people with no qualifications
- 17 - 21 year olds enrolling into full time higher education
- School leavers aged 16-18 not in education
Health:
- Standardised Mortality Ratio
- Hospital episodes related to alcohol use
- Hospital episodes related to drug use
- Comparative illness factor
- Emergency admissions to hospital
- Proportion of population being prescribed drugs for anxiety, depression or psychosis
- Proportion of live singleton births of low birth weight
Housing:
- Persons in households which are over-crowded
- Persons in households without central heating
Geographic Access to Services:
- Drive time to GP
- Drive time to shopping facilities
- Drive time to petrol station
- Drive time to primary and secondary schools
- Drive time to post office
- Public transport time to GP
- Public transport time to shopping facilities
- Public transport time to Post Office
The SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006 are very strongly related to each other, although as might be expected due to change in areas over time and also improvements to the measurement of deprivation, the SIMD 2006 has identified movement of areas into and out from the 15 per cent most deprived areas in Scotland.
The 2004 Geographic Access to Services domain was based solely on drive times whereas the 2006 domain also takes into account public transport times to three of the services.
- Over 60 per cent of data zones in rural areas are in the 15 per cent most deprived areas in terms of access compared to four per cent of data zones in urban areas
- Highland and Aberdeenshire have the greatest proportion of Scotland's 15 per cent most access deprived data zones in Scotland (each with 13 per cent)
Due to the lack of new data for the 2006 Housing domain, it contains exactly the same data as the SIMD 2004. No analysis of the domain is included in the SIMD 2006 General Report. The Scottish Executive continues to look to developing data for inclusion in the housing domain for the next update to the SIMD.
The Executive is publishing several statistical documents and resources relating to the SIMD 2006 today. These are available online at www.scotland.gov.uk/simd and www.scotland.gov.uk/publications and include:
- A general report providing preliminary analysis of the overall SIMD 2006 and each of its domains, including analysis of change since the SIMD 2004
- A detailed online technical report which includes a description of the methodology and information about each individual indicator
- An updated interactive mapping website, showing local authority maps of the most deprived areas in SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006, and maps showing change in location of areas of deprivation between the two Indices
- An online Statistical Compendium of tables, charts and maps of analysis of the overall index and each domain, particularly at the local authority level
- Online spreadsheets of background data used to construct the SIMD 2006
- Ranks, Deciles and Vigintiles for the overall SIMD 2006 and by domain will be published on the Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics website at www.sns.gov.uk
The methodology used to construct the SIMD 2006 remains fundamentally the same as that used for the SIMD 2004, with some minor improvements. The methodology is based on the techniques developed by Oxford University and is described in full in the SIMD 2004 technical report. For the SIMD 2006, there have been several improvements to the methodology and data sources.