Overview
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation identifies small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland in a consistent way. It allows effective targeting of policies and funding where the aim is to wholly or partly tackle or take account of area concentrations of multiple deprivation.
The SIMD provides a wealth of information to help improve the understanding about the outcomes and circumstances of people living in the most deprived areas in Scotland.
The content of the SIMD website has been updated to reflect the revisions made to the SIMD 2009 income domain. Please see the News section for more information.
The key pages to help you are:
- Background and Methodology Information on the background, methodology and development of the SIMD.
- Interactive Mapping An interactive mapping tool which can be used to identify Scotland's most deprived areas and their location within each local authority area;
- Publications A general report with summary analysis is published on the website, while comprehensive information on the domains, indicators and methodology used in the SIMD can be found in the technical report;
- Data and Analysis The data used to construct the SIMD domains and overall SIMD, including: ranks and scores for each domain along with relevant population denominators.
- FAQs Frequently Asked Questions explaining how to make best use of the SIMD.
The SIMD is presented at data zone level, enabling small pockets of deprivation to be identified. The data zones, which have a median population size of 769, are ranked from most deprived (1) to least deprived (6,505) on the overall SIMD and on each of the individual domains. The result is a comprehensive picture of relative area deprivation across Scotland.
You can also use the Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics website to carry out more detailed analysis of the SIMD through comparison of the results with a range of socio-economic indicators.