1.1. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) presents a picture of multiple deprivation across Scotland. The Scottish Government has used this method to track multiple deprivation since the development of the first Index of Multiple Deprivation in 2004. Taken together the three indices (2004, 2006 and 2009) provide a series of snapshots in time of the concentrations of multiple deprivation across the country. Although the SIMD as it currently stands has only been in existence since 2004 there is a long history of indices being produced and used both in central and local government. The benefits over previous approaches that the SIMD provides include regular updates, the opportunity to incorporate the most recent and appropriate data into these updates and a stable base geography so that change can be measured over time.
1.2. The picture painted in this most recent update to the Index is based mainly around data from 2008 and while the economic situation has changed since then it is still a valid picture of the distribution of deprivation. Whilst the recession will have had a rapid impact on employment and incomes, some of these changes may be relatively short term. Investigations were carried out to look at the impact of including more recent unemployment data in the Index but the effect on the overall distribution was negligible. Full details of this analysis is available on the SIMD web pages. The Index also looks beyond the economic situation and covers a range of other life circumstances of the people of Scotland including health, education, access to services, housing and crime which take longer to change.
1.3. The picture of multiple deprivation across Scotland has changed since 2004. There have been real changes in people's lives, both positive and negative but there have also been changes in how well we are able to measure and monitor these changes. Sometimes an improvement in measurement makes it look as if the situation for an area is actually worsening but this is not always the case. It can be that the improvement means that we are now getting a better picture of what was previously being obscured by less effective measurement.
1.4. SIMD 2009 shows some changes in the areas of Scotland which have the highest concentrations of multiple deprivation but four in every five datazones that were in the 15% most deprived on SIMD 2004 are still in the 15% most deprived on SIMD 2009. Glasgow continues to have the highest concentrations of multiple deprivation in Scotland by some considerable amount but it has seen a fall between SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006 and again to SIMD 2009. This fall has meant increases in other Local Authorities partly due to the relative nature of the SIMD, however the concentrations of deprivation are becoming more spread out across the country. The five local authorities with the most datazones in the 15% most deprived in SIMD 2004 contained two thirds of the 15% most deprived datazones in Scotland. By SIMD 2009, the five local authorities with the highest numbers of deprived datazones contained only 58% of the deprived datazones in Scotland, with the 7 highest containing two thirds of the deprived datazones.
1.5. The five Local Authorities with the largest proportion of their datazones in the 15% most deprived are Glasgow, Inverclyde, Dundee City, West Dunbartonshire and North Ayrshire. North Ayrshire has replaced Clackmannanshire which has seen a fall in the proportion of its datazones in the 15% most deprived since SIMD 2006. North Ayrshire, along with South Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and West Lothian have seen the biggest increases in the proportion of datazones within the Local Authority in the 15% most deprived.
1.6. Of the datazones moving into the 15% most deprived, over 90% were in the 15-20% band in SIMD 2006, so were just outside the cut off and the majority have seen a worsening on a number of the domains, demonstrating that it is concentrations of multiple deprivation driving the changes and not just one aspect of deprivation.
1.7. In 2009, Glasgow has fewer datazones in the 15% most deprived and 30% fewer datazones in the 5% most deprived in Scotland since 2004. So although Glasgow still has the majority of datazones in the 5% most deprived, the distribution has changed slightly to be spread over other local authorities. North Lanarkshire, Inverclyde, Dundee City, and Fife all have at least 7 more datazones in the 5% most deprived in Scotland. South Ayrshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, Dundee City, Fife and Dumfries & Galloway all had increasing numbers of datazones in the 5%, 10%, 15% most deprived across the 3 versions of the index, making them relatively worse off between 2004 and 2009. Only Glasgow's number of datazones has decreased in this manner. Other local authorities have fluctuated, or maintained numbers in each category.
1.8. Looking at the individual domains can tell a slightly different story to the overall SIMD rankings as each of these focus on different aspects of deprivation. So these can show what the biggest issues are for specific areas. Almost all of the most deprived datazones in the overall SIMD 2009 were also classed as deprived in at least three individual domains or topic areas. Approximately three quarters were deprived in four or more domains showing concentrations of multiple deprivation.
1.9. There are now more people classed as income deprived (15.1%) than in either of the two previous versions of the Index. We have seen a small increase since SIMD 2004 (from 15.0%) and an increase since SIMD 2006 (from 13.9%) across Scotland. This is because we are now able to use tax credit data to identify individuals in work with low incomes - this gives us a better picture of income deprivation than we have been able to get before. Across Scotland as a whole almost one in seven people are income deprived but in the most deprived areas this rises to just over one in three.
1.10. The employment domain shows that approximately one in eight of the working age population in Scotland are employment deprived and of these roughly one third live in the most employment deprived areas of the country. Overall the number of employment deprived people in Scotland has been falling steadily over the past few years and this is reflected in the different versions of the SIMD. It should be noted however that the data used in the employment domain covers a period before the recession and if you are specifically interested in employment deprivation more recent data is available, though the relative picture will not necessarily change.
1.11. In both the income and employment domains a similar pattern to the overall SIMD is evident with Glasgow having the largest share of the most deprived but improving over time.
1.12. There is an east - west divide in relation to the health domain. The most health deprived datazones are concentrated in three health boards - Ayrshire & Arran, Lanarkshire and Greater Glasgow & Clyde. This was the same in 2006. Over two thirds of the datazones classed as most deprived in 2009 have been in the most health deprived for all three versions of the Index which is to be expected as the causes of ill health have built up over time and in many cases changes made now will only show many years down the line.
1.13. In the education domain only three of the indicators are directly comparable with the previous version of the SIMD. All the datazones moving into the most deprived rankings have deteriorated in at least one of these indicators. Roughly half got worse on two and a similar number got worse on three. Of the datazones that moved out approximately half improved on at least three indicators. This suggests that there have been real changes within these areas.
1.14. The access domain highlights one of the major issues for the more rural areas of Scotland. The island local authorities Argyll & Bute, Eilean Siar, Orkney and Shetland show high levels of deprivation on this domain compared to the other domains. Over half of the remote rural datazones are classed as the most access deprived in Scotland and this has remained the same over all three versions of the Index.
1.15. The crime domain has seen approximately two thirds of deprived datazones remain in the most deprived between 2006 and 2009. The police force area with the highest proportion of datazones in the 15% most deprived on the crime domain is Strathclyde followed by Fife and Lothian & Borders. There is also a strong urban rural split with the higher levels visible in more urban areas. The relationship between the crime domains from both years is not as strong as that between some of the other domains across time. At a very small area level such as datazone, crime can be highly mobile and be 'pushed' from one area to another by increases in police or other action.
SIMD 2009 ( Chapter 3)
- The most deprived datazone in SIMD 2009 is S01003279 in the Parkhead / Barrowfield area in the East of Glasgow.
- 742,300 people live in the 15% most deprived datazones in SIMD 2009. Of these, 266,500 (36%) are income deprived.
- 459,495 working age people live in the 15% most deprived datazones in SIMD 2009, of these 121,725 (26%) are employment deprived.
- Glasgow has seen a fall in the proportion of its datazones in the 15% most deprived from 48% to 44% from 2006.
- The five Local Authorities with the largest proportion of their datazones in the 15% most deprived are Glasgow (43.5%), Inverclyde (38.2%), Dundee (30.2%), West Dunbartonshire (26.3%) and North Ayrshire (24.0%). North Ayrshire has replaced Clackmannanshire which has seen a fall in the proportion of its datazones in the 15% most deprived since SIMD 2006.
- 31% of the 15% most deprived datazones in Scotland are within Glasgow City, this is a fall from 34% in SIMD 2006 and 38% in SIMD 2004.
- The 5 Local Authorities with the highest proportion of the most deprived datazones nationally contain 58% of the 15% most deprived datazones in Scotland. This is a fall from 67% in SIMD 2004.
- The Local Authorities with the largest numbers of the 15% most deprived datazones in Scotland are Glasgow City (30.9%) North Lanarkshire (9.1%), City of Edinburgh (6.1%), South Lanarkshire (5.9%) and Dundee City (5.5%) .
- The Health Boards with the largest proportion of their datazones in the 15% most deprived are Greater Glasgow & Clyde (30.4%), Ayrshire & Arran (18.3%), Lanarkshire (17.4%), Tayside (13.3%) and Fife (11.3%).
- The Health Boards with the largest proportions of the 15% most deprived datazones in Scotland are Greater Glasgow & Clyde (45.9%), Lanarkshire (12.9%), Ayrshire & Arran (9.0%), Lothian (8.8%) and Tayside (6.8%).
- Between them, these 5 Health Boards with the largest proportions of the most deprived datazones nationally contain 83% of the 15% most deprived datazones in Scotland.
- The datazones in the 5% most deprived contain the highest concentration of multiple deprivation. Glasgow City has 23% of its datazones in the 5% most deprived, followed by Inverclyde with 15.5% and Dundee with 10.1%.
- 49% of the datazones in the most deprived 5% according to SIMD 2009 are in Glasgow City, down from 52% in SIMD 2006. Edinburgh has the second highest proportion (6.8%) followed by North Lanarkshire (6.5%), though Edinburgh has also seen a fall since SIMD 2006. This shows that even in areas with the highest concentrations of deprivation there has been movement, some of which is due to demolition and new build.
- The proportion of the 15% most deprived datazones in Large Urban Areas has fallen from 64% in SIMD 2006 to 62% in SIMD 2009. Increases have been seen in Other Urban Areas and Small Towns. This demonstrates that levels of relative deprivation are being seen in other parts of Scotland as improvements are seen in Glasgow.
Change over time
- 81% of datazones in the most deprived 15% in SIMD 2009 were in the most deprived in the two previous versions of the SIMD so whilst there has been movement in and out of the 15% most deprived, four datazones in five have remained in the most deprived.
- The majority of areas that moved out of the 15% most deprived in SIMD 2006 have remained out, demonstrating maintained improvement. Of the datazones that moved out of the 15% most deprived between SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006, 95 (79%) have remained out of the 15% most deprived on SIMD 2009
- Of the 120 datazones that moved into the 15% between SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006, 66% have remained in the 15% most deprived.
- 93% of datazones in the 15% most deprived were in the 15% most deprived in 3 or more domains on SIMD 2009. 77% were in the 15% most deprived on four or more domains. This shows that the areas are experiencing concentrations of multiple deprivation and that it's not just one aspect of the index pushing them into the most deprived.
- The majority of datazones in the 5% most deprived in SIMD 2009 have been in the most deprived on all versions of the SIMD. Those in the 10-15% band are more likely to have moved in. Of the 325 datazones in the 5% most deprived in SIMD 2009, all except 1 were in the 15% most deprived in SIMD 2004. Only 59% of the datazones in the 10-15% most deprived in SIMD 2009 were in the most deprived in SIMD 2004.
- The areas with the most concentrated multiple deprivation have remained in the 15% most deprived whereas datazones nearer the cut off are more likely to have moved out. 95% of datazones in the 5% most deprived in SIMD 2004 are still in the 15% most deprived in SIMD 2009. Only two thirds of the datazones in the 10-15% most deprived in SIMD 2004 remain in the 15% most deprived in SIMD 2009.
Employment Domain ( Chapter 4)
- The 2009 employment domain shows that 12% of the working age population are employment deprived. Of these, 33% live in one of the 15% most employment deprived datazones in Scotland.
- Glasgow City has the highest proportion of its working age population experiencing employment deprivation at 17%. Of these, almost two thirds live in the 15% most deprived datazones on the overall SIMD. In contrast, Aberdeenshire has the smallest percentage of its working age population employment deprived at 6%.
- Of the datazones in the 15% most deprived in the employment domain of SIMD 2009, 59% have remained in this category for all three versions of the SIMD. Glasgow City has the highest proportion (37%) of its datazones remaining in the 15% most deprived across the three SIMDs, showing concentrations of employment deprivation changing little since SIMD 2004.
- East Lothian and Moray saw datazones entering the 15% most employment deprived for the first time with 2 and 3 datazones respectively. North Lanarkshire gained the most at 22 new datazones, while Glasgow lost the most at 38 datazones. This shows some increases in other areas as Glasgow sees a fall. This is due to the relative nature of the SIMD.
Income Domain ( Chapter 5)
- The inclusion of tax credit data within the income domain has seen an overall increase in the number of individuals classed as income deprived by the SIMD, as a new subset of people are now being included in the count.
- In the 2009 SIMD 36% of people living in the 15% most income deprived areas were income deprived compared to 12% in the rest of Scotland. Across Scotland as a whole approximately one in seven people or 15% of the population are income deprived.
- The largest concentration of income deprivation is in Glasgow with 33% of the 15% most deprived datazones, this was a fall from 34% in 2006. The next largest shares are in North Lanarkshire (8%), Edinburgh (6%) and Dundee City (6%).
- Between the 2006 SIMD and the 2009 SIMD 114 datazones moved into the 15% most deprived and 114 moved out. All of the datazones that have moved in have seen an increase in the proportion of the population that are income deprived whilst most of the datazones that have moved have seen decreases.
- Of the 862 datazones that have remained in the 15% most income deprived between the 2006 SIMD and the 2009 SIMD 776 were also in the 15% most deprived of the income domain in 2004 .
Health Domain ( Chapter 6)
- Glasgow has seen a fall in the percentage of its datazones in the 15% most deprived on the health domain from 49% to 46%. Inverclyde has the second highest local share of deprived datazones at 42%.
- Of the datazones in the 15% most deprived in the health domain on SIMD 2009, 70% have been in the 15% most deprived in each of the three updates to the domain.
- Over 90% of the datazones in the 15% most deprived on the health domain in Tayside, Forth Valley and Greater Glasgow & Clyde have been in the 15% most deprived on at least one previous update of the Health domain.
- East Glasgow and North Glasgow Community Health Partnership had 2/3 of their datazones in the 15% most health deprived on SIMD 2006. Both have seen a fall in the number of datazones in the 15% most health deprived in SIMD 2009 to 64% and 59% respectively.
- East Glasgow Community Health Partnership contains 10% of the most health deprived datazones in Scotland.
Education Domain ( Chapter 7)
- Glasgow has the highest proportion (40%) of its datazones in the 15% most deprived on the education domain, followed by Dundee City (30%). Both have seen small falls since SIMD 2006.
- Aberdeen City and North Ayrshire have seen large increases in the percentage of datazones in the 15% most education deprived. Aberdeen City increased from 11% to 15%, North Ayrshire increased from 16% to 21%.
- The datazones moving into the 15% most deprived on the education domain have all seen a worsening in performance on at least one of the three indicators that are comparable with SIMD 2006. 91% got worse on at least two indicators and 45% on three.
- Of the datazones that moved out of the 15% most education deprived, 54% improved on two of the three indicators that are comparable with SIMD 2006 and 40% improved on all three. This demonstrates that areas have seen real as well as relative improvements.
- 10% of the datazones in Scotland have fallen in the 15% most education deprived on all three updates of the SIMD. 36% of the datazones in Glasgow and 19% of the datazones in Dundee City have appeared in the 15% most education deprived on the three updates to the SIMD.
Access Domain ( Chapter 8)
- Over half of each of Scotland's island Local Authorities (Argyll & Bute, Eilean Siar, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands) are access deprived whilst the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow show almost no signs of access deprivation in SIMD 2009.
- Some local authorities, for example Argyll & Bute, Inverclyde and North Ayrshire, have relatively low drive times (a couple of minutes) but due to other areas having slightly quicker times, areas in these local authorities have been pushed into the 15% most deprived.
- Overall, using the 6-Fold Urban Rural Classification (2008), classes 1 to 3 have shown movement away from the 15% most access deprived datazones, and classes 4 to 6 have shown movement into the 15% most access deprived datazones.
- Over half of all datazones in Remote Rural Areas have been in the 15% most access deprived across all three versions of the SIMD. Around 30% of the datazones in Accessible Rural Areas are in a similar situation.
Crime Domain ( Chapter 9)
- Glasgow City Local Authority has the largest share of datazones in the 15% most deprived in the SIMD 2009 crime domain at 18%. Edinburgh has 10%, North Lanarkshire 8%, Fife 7%, and Aberdeen 6%.
- Strathclyde Police Force Area has the largest national share of the 15% most deprived datazones in relation to crime at 49.4%. Dumfries & Galloway Police Force Area have the smallest national share at 2.2%.
- Despite having just under half the most deprived datazones in Scotland within the police force area, only 17.2% of datazones in Strathclyde are in the 15% most deprived. Fife has the second highest proportion at 15.2% and Lothian & Borders 15%.
- Dumfries & Galloway and Northern have the lowest proportion of datazones in the police force area in the 15% most deprived on the SIMD 2009 crime domain. Dumfries & Galloway has seen a fall since SIMD 2006, Northern has seen an increase.
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