Cross-cutting issues - Scottish Index of Deprivation
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2004 identifies the most deprived areas across Scotland. It is based on 31 indicators in the six individual domains of Current Income, Employment, Housing, Health, Education, Skills and Training and Geographic Access to Services and Telecommunications.
The SIMD website, which contains an interactive mapping tool, background data sets and links to related publications can be accessed at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/simd
The SIMD 2004 is the first output from the SE's long-term strategy for measuring deprivation and, in contrast to earlier indices, the SE has committed to a timetable for the development and publication of future measures of deprivation. This is a major step forward in the analysis of deprivation. In the past, indices have been produced on an ad-hoc basis and have therefore used different methodologies and data. Through the long-term strategy the SE is stating its future aims, committing to using better data and providing regular updates. This will result in the construction of an improved index over the next ten years. The strategy will allow the methodology to be refined, new data sources to be developed and included and, most importantly, users will know exactly when the next update is due. This is of particular benefit for funding or policy purposes.
The key medium and long term aims for the strategy include:
- update the SIMD 2004 in October 2006.
- investigate whether individual measures of deprivation are appropriate and if so how they can be implemented.
Measuring Deprivation Advisory Group
The Advisory Group provides the OCS with advice on measuring deprivation as it works to implement the long term strategy for measuring deprivation. Advice will cover:
- the needs of users
- development priorities;
- methodological options;
- quality of outputs;
- dissemination and guidance on the use of outputs.
This group was previously called the Index of Deprivation Advisory Group, which advised the Executive on the development of the SID 2003 and SIMD 2004.
The previous minutes and papers of advisory group meetings are as follows:
Index of Deprivation Advisory Group minutes
The SIMD 2004 is based on the methodology used in the interim Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2003 (SID 2003). This interim index has now been superseded by SIMD 2004 and it is no longer recommended for use. Some background information about SIMD 2003 can be found at:
Interim Scottish Indices of Deprivation 2003