Does the SIMD take account of the age and sex structure of the datazone population?
Yes, to a certain extent. Each indicator has a population denominator and this is not always the total population. For example, the employment domain denominator is the working age population and the secondary attainment rate uses the population of S4 pupils only.
For some of the indicators (mainly health domain indicators) the rates have been indirectly age-sex standardised - this means that the rate you see at datazone level is the ratio of what you expect to what is observed, given the age and sex structure of the population in thatdata zone. If the rate is greater than 100, the value is greater than you might expect and if it is lower than 100, it is less than you might expect, based on the national average. The SIMD 2006 technical report provides more information on the denominators used for each indicator and the process of age-sex standardising.
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How were the domain weightings decided?
The weights are those used in Scottish Indices of Deprivation (SID) 2003, adjusted to allow the inclusion of the Housing domain in SIMD 2004 and Crime domain in SIMD 2006. The work by Oxford University's Social Disadvantage Research Centre on SID 2003 concluded that the Current Income and Employment domains should carry most weight in the overall index. This is partly due to the fact that these domains are more robust and partly since this is in line with the academic literature on deprivation. The weights for the remaining domains were chosen with the criteria that the domains with the most robust indicators should be given the greatest weights. (It is important to note that only indicators, which are sufficiently robust, are included within the index.)
The weights for SID 2003 were strongly based on academic literature and Oxford University's own research. In particular, they pointed to Townsend's definition of deprivation: 'while people experiencing some forms of deprivation may not all have low income, people experiencing multiple or single but very severe forms of deprivation are in almost every instance likely to have very little income and little or no other resources.' They therefore accorded the Income and Employment domains the highest weights since they saw worklessness as a deprivation in its own right, and not simply a driver for low income.
The choice of weights is a matter of informed judgement. In the final analysis there is no ultimate method by which to measure multiple deprivation, as it is a combination of individual deprivations, measured here in the index domains. However, the domain weights in the SIMD have been chosen based on those used in SID 2003 which gave due regard to the driving forces behind multiple deprivation, as discussed in the wider academic literature.
All decisions on weightings take place after a sensitivity analysis of the effects of changing the weights and consultation with the ScotStat Measuring Deprivation Advisory Group.
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Has the methodology you use been independently reviewed?
Yes. The University of Glasgow's Robertson Centre for Biostatistics conducted an independent evaluation of the methodology used in the SIMD 2004. They passed the 'health check' on its methodology, however, they did produce a series of recommendations to simplify and improve it. The Scottish Government accepted some of these recommendations. The full report by Glasgow University and the Scottish Government's response were published in November 2005 and can be found in the publications section of the SIMD website.
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What input did Ministers have in putting together the index?
Decisions on the methodology used in the SIMD are made by Government Statisticians in conjunction with the ScotStat Measuring Deprivation Advisory Group. In 2006, the UK's National Statistician approved the SIMD as a National Statistics product, which means that decisions on methodology, choice of indicators and timing of the index are free from political intervention.
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What is the update timetable for the index?
There was a three year gap between the data used in SIMD 2004 (2001-02 data) and SIMD 2006 (2004-05 data), and the same again for SIMD 2009 (mainly 2007-08 data).This would point to the next update being in 2012.
We will consult users on this as there are other issues to be taken into consideration, e.g. availability of census 2011 data, and the re-drawing of datazone boundaries. We are also hoping to work with DWP and HMRC to enable us to publish annual updates to the income and employment domains to better track change over time and what is happening between updates to the full SIMD.
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The SIMD uses data from before the recession so it is not a good indicator of where the most deprived areas are after the impact of the recession.
Consideration was given into whether we should use more recent data in our calculation of the employment domain. A paper was written up into our decision on which data to use in the employment domain and this can be found here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/SIMD/EmploymentCalendarPaper picture between local authorities remained mostly the same. relative. In short, it was found that using more recent data did increase employment deprivation across the whole of Scotland, but that the
We have subsequently published the first of future annual updates to the employment and income domains. This uses mainly 2009 data and so allows users to track change over time and to monitor the effects of the recession. The publication can be found here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/SIMD/AnnualUpdates . Amongst other things it concluded that whilst levels of income and employment deprivation had risen, the relative picture across Scotland remained similar to that seen in SIMD 2009.
In the calculation of the other domains for SIMD 2009, we worked with the latest data that was available to us at the time, much of which was from 2007 and 2008, before the impact of the recession. However, as in the income and employment domains, this should not greatly affect the relative picture across the whole of Scotland.
From page 7 onwards of our technical report , an in-depth explanation of all our data sources is given, including where they came from and what time period they refer to.
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