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Defining deprivation

SIMD Review – User Workshop. Defining deprivation. Background. For the past decade, the Scottish Government’s tool for measuring deprivation has been SIMD (the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation).

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Defining deprivation

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  1. SIMD Review – User Workshop Defining deprivation Background For the past decade, the Scottish Government’s tool for measuring deprivation has been SIMD (the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation). But ten years on, does SIMD’s understanding of deprivation still reflect the experience of people in Scotland today? Are there better ways of measuring deprivation in Scotland? What is deprivation? • Sen says … • income and living standards are just means to an end • people are deprived when they are restricted in their freedom to make choices about what they want to be and do • we should consider the broadest possible range of constraints on wellbeing –discrimination, disability, a hazardous living environment, etc • Townsend says … • deprivation is relative to societal norms which vary across time and place • multi-dimensional – encompassing basic necessities (diet, clothing, etc) and the wider context (educational activities, working conditions, etc) • both material and social • something that affects people (not areas) • more than just a question of income Urban and rural deprivation • In rural areas: • the cost of living is higher • people have fewer opportunities to find a job that matches their skills • travelling distances are greater and petrol costs more • health inequalities are greater • people report higher levels of wellbeing • Are urban and rural deprivation the same thing? • Scotland’s urban and Scotland’s rural areas are both deprived in relation to essentially the same set of needs and wants • ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ are less of a dichotomy and more of a spectrum • rurality increases and compounds aspects of deprivation which are equally recognisable in urban Scotland People, not places • How can we measure people’s experience? • censuses and surveys can’t provide individual data for such small areas in so much detail • how can we make an area-based measure more ‘individualist’? • what other options are there? • SIMD is an area-based measure • it tells us where the worst concentrations of deprivation are • and how areas compare to each other • but not the number of individuals in multiple deprivation in each area • or how levels of deprivation change over time Cath Dickie | Office of the Chief Statistician & Performance | St Andrews House | Edinburgh | EH13DG | catherine.dickie@scotland.gsi.gov.uk | 0131 244 7714

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