Overview
This websection provides users with further information on the background, methodology and development of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2006 identifies small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland in a fair way.
SIMD 2006 is an update with improvements on SIMD 2004 and uses the same geographical base as the SIMD 2004 of data zones. Due to changed data sources and improvements to indicators and methodology, the overall SIMD and most domains are not directly comparable in absolute terms with those in the SIMD 2004. The only domain that is directly comparable between SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006 is the employment domain and, as such, this domain is used for analysis of absolute change.
The SIMD provides a relative measure of deprivation which means that the main output from SIMD - the SIMD ranks - can be used to compare data zones by providing a relative ranking from most deprived (rank 1) to least deprived (rank 6,505). The SIMD cannot be used to determine 'how much' more deprived one data zone is than another e.g. it is not possible to say that data zone X, ranked 50, is twice as deprived as data zone Y, ranked 100.
The SIMD can be used to identify Scotland's most deprived small areas on the overall index and each individual domain, commonly by applying a cut off such as 10%, 15% or 20%. The cut off should be informed by whether it aims to target areas with the very highest concentrations of deprivation or to be wider ranging.
Both the SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006 are heavily based on the methodology developed by the Social Disadvantage Research Centre at the University of Oxford.
In developing an area-based measure of deprivation, the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation was the Scottish Executive's response to the August 2003 report 'Measuring Deprivation in Scotland : Developing a Long-Term Strategy'.
The final report and the Scottish Executive response are available here:
Measuring Deprivation in Scotland : Developing a Long-Term Strategy and Scottish Executive response
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2006 combines 37 indicators across 7 domains, namely: current income, employment, health, education, skills and training, housing, geographic access and crime.
The overall index is a weighted sum of the seven domain scores. The weighting for each domain is based on the relative importance of the domain in measuring multiple deprivation, the robustness of the data and the time lag between data collection and the production of the SIMD. The domain weightings were subject to sensitivity analysis to assess the effects of any changes in weights on the overall index ranks.
Prior to weighting, the domains are standardised by ranking the scores. The ranks then undergo a statistical transformation to avoid high ranks in one domain 'cancelling out' low ranks in another. The domain weightings used in SIMD 2006, expressed as a % of the overall weight are: current income (28%), employment (28%), health (14%), education (14%), geographic access (9%), crime (5%) and housing (2%).
Decisions on changes to the methodology used to create the SIMD, and the indicators included in it, are made in conjunction with data providers and the ScotStat Measuring Deprivation Advisory Group (MDAG).
Full technical details on the methodology and construction of each indicator in the SIMD 2006 are available in the SIMD 2006 Techncial report available from the Publications section.
Alongside the technical report are various papers relating to methodology, including:
General
Geography
Geographic Access
Papers describing the methodology underpinning the geographic access domain: