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Introduction

This study presents a huge amount of information on the depth and concentration of poverty and disadvantage at a national and local level. The analysis is based on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD) 2004 which identifies small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across Scotland. The publication provides new insight which can help improve understanding about the outcomes and circumstances of people living in the most deprived areas and is particularly relevant to a range of the Executive's Partnership Agreement commitments, especially those related to community regeneration and Closing the Opportunity Gap.

There is a long history of area deprivation analyses, but the SIMD and Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics ( SNS) provide an opportunity for deprivation to be monitored in a systematic way. SNS aims to make the most of the wealth of administrative data held in government systems to provide statistics at the small area level to support national and local policy. The SIMD 2004 is the Scottish Executive's official measure of area based multiple deprivation.

The study provides a snapshot of the scale of the differences between the most deprived areas and the rest of Scotland and, through Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics, introduces for the first time, a framework to allow changes over time to be readily monitored. Where data sources allow, the study includes historic analysis. The scope for this type of analysis will increase further once historic small area population estimates become available. Statistics from the data sources included in the study have been published previously, but this study is the first to analyse statistics from across a range of policy areas on the official measure of concentrations of deprivation.

SNS and SIMD 2004 are used to identify deprived areas for intervention and are also being used in analyses to provide contextual information to better understand the challenges in delivering policies in different parts of Scotland.

The publication aims to meet a number of identified needs, including to:

• Provide evidence to help develop better services in Scotland's most deprived areas;
• Provide comparative information from which to assess national progress on the Community Planning Partnership's Regeneration Outcome Agreements;
• Provide contextual evidence for the Closing the Opportunity Gap and Partnership Agreement commitments and targets by helping to understand the differing challenges in different parts of Scotland;
• Meet the Scottish Executive's long term strategy for measuring deprivation commitment to make available analysis of deprivation by life stage. Where possible, the publication focuses on specific life-stages - children and young people, older people and working age; and
• Bring together information about the depth and concentration of area deprivation inequalities in to an accessible single source.

The publication does not attempt to identify key indicators that will be monitored over time. The Closing the Opportunity Gap internet site sets out the Scottish Executive's targets for tackling poverty and disadvantage and how these are measured. This publication supports the Closing the Opportunity Gap targets.

There are 10 chapters each containing a series of tables and charts presenting statistics on deprived areas across a broad range of outcomes. The first two chapters provide information on the results of the SIMD 2004 and demographics. The subsequent chapters focus on a range of policy areas including health, education and the labour market.

Key points

The analyses focus on the 5, 10, 15 or 20% most deprived areas depending on data sources and the focus of the analysis. The study includes 136 tables and charts, and the following key points attempt to draw out the main findings to help develop the understanding of concentrations of multiple deprivation across Scotland.

• The spread of concentrations of deprivation across Scotland: The highest concentrations of multiple deprivation are found in Glasgow. Over 50 per cent of the neighbourhoods in Glasgow City are defined to be in the most deprived 15% of neighbourhoods nationally; the comparable statistics for other local authorities with relatively high concentrations are: Inverclyde (33 per cent); Dundee (28 per cent), West Dunbartonshire (27 per cent), and North Lanarkshire (25 per cent).
• Highest concentrations of deprivation: The 'deprivation slope' is steepest in the most deprived areas: 57 per cent of the population in the 1% most deprived areas are income deprived, compared to 47 per cent in the 5% most deprived areas, 41 per cent in the 10% most deprived areas, and 34 per cent in the 20% most deprived areas. Not all income deprived people live in deprived areas, just under 40 per cent of income deprived people live in the 15% most deprived areas.
• Compounding effect of multiple deprivation: In almost all aspects of life, there are considerable differences between the most deprived areas and the rest of Scotland.
• People living alone: The changes in deprived areas over time should be viewed in parallel with the demographic changes in society; some of the main changes include the number of people living alone. The proportion of people of working age living alone increased from 13 to 18 per cent of all households across Scotland between 1991 and 2001, and in the 10% most deprived areas single people of working age now make up one in four households. Lone parents make up 12 per cent of households in the 10% most deprived areas, compared to six per cent nationally (women make up over 90 per cent of lone parent households).
• Ethnicity and Faith: Some minority ethnic groups and faith groups are overrepresented in the most deprived areas. For example, 20 per cent of people describing themselves as African, Black Scottish or Black other, and Other South Asian live in the 10% most deprived areas; 19 per cent of Roman Catholics and 14 per cent of Muslims live in the 10% most deprived areas. The reasons why these groups are over represented are complex and relate to the higher levels of people from these groups living in urban areas, the higher levels of deprivation in urban areas, and also the education, health and the labour market outcomes of people from these groups (with different groups facing different challenges).
• People moving in and out of deprived areas: Analysis shows that over half of all the people moving in to the 10% most deprived areas were previously living in the 10% most deprived areas. Analyses of the 2001 Census show that migrants from the rest of the UK in to Scotland were more likely to move to the least deprived areas of Scotland. Seventeen per cent of migrants in to Scotland from elsewhere in the UK moved in to the 10% least deprived areas. This is also the case for migrants from the rest of the world, with 22 per cent moving in to the 10% least deprived areas. Whilst migrants with no usual address one year before the 2001 Census were most likely to move in to the most deprived areas; some 20 per cent of migrants with no usual address one year before the Census moved in to the 10% most deprived areas.
• Income: Household income is increasing across Scotland, although there is no evidence at present about whether the gap between household incomes in the most deprived areas and the rest of Scotland is closing.
  
  There are differences between the most deprived areas and the rest of Scotland in the proportions of people dependent on benefits and tax credits. For example, in the 15% most deprived areas over 40 per cent of children are dependent on a recipient of income support, compared with 10 per cent of children in the rest of Scotland. People of working age living in the 15% most deprived areas are four times more likely to be receiving income support than those living in the rest of Scotland.
• Labour Market: There are differences between the most deprived areas and the rest of Scotland in economic inactivity rates and unemployment rates, with particularly large differences in the percentage of men on incapacity benefit and the percentage of young people not in education, employment or training. In 2004, one in four men of working age in the 15% most deprived areas were on either incapacity benefit or severe disablement allowance compared to one in eleven men in the rest of Scotland. People living in the 15% most deprived areas are less likely to be in employment (55 per cent of the working age population is in employment in the 15% most deprived areas compared to over 75 per cent in the rest of Scotland). People living in the 15% most deprived areas are more likely to be unemployed (12 per cent of economically active people in the 15% most deprived areas are unemployed compared to 5 per cent in the rest of Scotland). Young people aged 16 to 24 living in the 15% most deprived areas are less likely to be in education, employment or training (30 per cent of 16 to 24 year olds in the 15% most deprived areas are not in education, employment or training compared to 13 per cent of 16 to 24 year olds in the rest of Scotland).
• Education: Recent changes to the way statistics are collected now allow, for the first time, analysis of educational outcomes based on where children live, as well as where they go to school. There are differences between the most deprived areas and the rest of Scotland in educational outcomes at primary, secondary and higher education level. In 2003/4, 45.8 per cent of pupils from the 15% most deprived areas attained expected standards in writing at P7, compared with 60.6 per cent from the whole of Scotland. In the 15% most deprived areas, more pupils (11 per cent) leave publicly funded secondary schools without any qualifications than the rest of the Scotland (3.0 per cent) - this statistic does not include the children attending special schools, of which, there are again a higher proportion living in deprived areas. Of all higher education graduates from Scotland in 2002/3, 5.5 per cent were from the 10% most deprived areas compared with 14.9 per cent from the 10% least deprived areas.
  
  Some 18 per cent of enrolments to further educational colleges are from the 15% per cent most deprived areas.
• Health: Improvements are being made across the whole of Scotland on a number of health outcomes, for example, on reducing premature deaths. However, for many health outcomes, the differences between the most deprived areas and the rest of Scotland are increasing because the improvements are being made at a faster rate in the least deprived areas. Premature mortality rates for those aged under 75 in the 10% most deprived areas are 845 per 100,000 of the population compared to 265 per 100,000 in the 10% least deprived areas. This means that the mortality rates for those aged under 75 in the 10% most deprived areas are three times as high as those in the 10% least deprived areas. The differing health outcomes between men and women should also be recognised.
  It is also worth highlighting the 50 per cent increase (between 1991 and 2001) in the proportions of people with a limiting long-term illness across all areas of Scotland - these increases have been seen in all age groups. Some 30 per cent of people living in 10% most deprived areas have a limiting long term illness, compared to 12 per cent in the 10% least deprived areas.
• Housing: There have been improvements to Scotland's housing and this is helping to reduce and turn around the differences between the most deprived areas and the rest of Scotland. For example, there is no difference in the proportion of homes with central heating, and homes in deprived areas are more likely to have good energy efficiency (44 per cent of homes in the 15% most deprived areas compared to 31 per cent nationally).
  The tenure mix in deprived neighbourhoods is changing - the proportion of owner occupiers in the 10% most deprived areas has doubled from 14 to 28 per cent between 1991 and 2001. However, this is relatively low when compared to the Scotland level of 63 per cent of households owned.
  
  Between 2003 and 2004, house prices increased across all areas with the smallest relative increase in the 5% most deprived areas.
• Neighbourhoods: There are signs that the differences between the most deprived areas and the rest of Scotland in people's perceptions of their neighbourhoods are closing. The proportion of people in the 15% most deprived areas who rate their neighbourhood as a fairly or very poor place to live decreased from 26 per cent (1999) to 22 per cent (2003), the comparable proportions for the rest of Scotland have fluctuated between four and five per cent. People living in the 15% most deprived areas were just as likely to say that they particularly liked the social aspects of their neighbourhoods as those living in the rest of Scotland. Particular social aspects that were chosen were good neighbours (35 per cent in 15% most deprived, 32 per cent in the rest of Scotland), friendly people (28 per cent in 15% most deprived, 30 per cent in the rest of Scotland).
• Crime: People living in the most deprived areas are more worried about being assaulted or mugged than those living in the rest of Scotland, although there was little difference in the number of incidents of personal crime recorded. Some 53 per cent of people in 15% most deprived areas are worried about being assaulted or mugged, compared with 35 per cent in the rest of Scotland. In 2002, there was very little difference in the number of incidents of personal crime (reported in the Scottish Crime Survey) between the 15% most deprived areas and the rest of Scotland.
• Physical Environment: Although the majority of statistics in this study show a strong relationship with level of deprivation, some of the physical environment statistics have a less straightforward relationship and are influenced strongly by urban and rural factors. For example, concentrations of air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, benzene and particulates are higher in the 10% most deprived areas and the 10% least deprived areas which are predominantly urban areas with high concentrations of population, industry and road traffic. Not all of the physical environment statistics in this study show a similar pattern.
• Access and transport: Sixty per cent of people living in the 20% most deprived areas have no access to a car for private use, compared with 14 per cent in the 20% least deprived areas.
  Average drive times to a range of services (including supermarkets, post offices, petrol stations, primary schools and GPs) are greatest in rural and remote areas. Statistics on average travel times by public transport are not readily available at this time.
  In the 15% most deprived areas, which are mainly urban areas, people are more likely to live within five kilometres of work and are more likely to take the bus or walk to work than those in the rest of Scotland. The average travel time to work, however, is not considerably different from those in the rest of Scotland.

Contact details for each chapter and key data providers have been included at the end of each chapter, along with a reference section containing useful websites and publications.

We hope that you find this an informative, useful and interesting publication.

Rob Wishart
Chief Statistician
September 2005

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