Scottish Government

Statistical Publication Notice: Minor Revision to Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004

The Office of the Chief Statistician have identified a minor inaccuracy in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2004 and are today publishing revised statistics. The revised statistics can be found on the SIMD 2004 and Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics internet sites at www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/simd2004/ and www.sns.gov.uk.

The inaccuracy is caused by a bug in the code to shrink the 'average S4 tariff score' indicator in the education domain.

The impact of the revision to the SIMD 2004 distribution is minimal:

• The distribution of differences between the SIMD 2004 and Revised SIMD 2004 rankings are illustrated in the table 1 below. The table shows that 650 data zones are in the most deprived decile on both the SIMD 2004 and Revised SIMD 2004.

• For all deciles only one or two data zones shift deciles between SIMD 2004 and Revised SIMD 2004.
• The mean difference in ranking between the original and revised SIMD 2004 is 4.
• The maximum difference in ranking between the original and revised SIMD 2004 is 204 places. However 5,923 (91%) of data zones move less than 10 places and 926 (14%) experience no change in ranking.
• The revision to the SIMD 2004 results in Glasgow City and Fife gaining one data zone in the most deprived 15% of data zones, and East Renfrewshire and West Lothian losing one data zone from the most deprived 15% of data zone.
• Falkirk and Midlothian gain one data zone in the most deprived 20% of data zones, and Aberdeen City and North Lanarkshire lose one data zone from the most deprived 20% of data zones.
• A full listing comparing the ranks of SIMD 2004 and Revised SIMD 2004 is available at www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/simd2004/

The impact of the revision to the Education domain is small and the distribution of differences between the Education Domain 2004 and Revised Education Domain 2004 rankings are illustrated in the table 2 below.

The Scottish Executive does not intend revising existing analysis based on the original SIMD, but will be using the revised SIMD in future analysis and will be advising other users to adopt a similar approach.

The Executive plans to publish a new Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation towards the end of 2006.

Further queries about the revision to SIMD 2004 should be addressed to Robert Williams or Tracey Stead at neighbourhood.statistics@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or telephone 0131 244 0442.