The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is the Scottish Government’s official tool for identifying places in Scotland suffering from deprivation. Deprivation in this context refers to the range of problems that arise due to the lack of resources or opportunities covering health, safety, education, employment, housing and access to services as well as financial aspects.
The most recent Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation was released by the Scottish Government on 31st August 2016. The SIMD divides Scotland into 6,976 small areas called data zones with roughly an equal population in each data zone. The Scottish Government then look at the indicators to measure the different sides of deprivation in each data zone including pupil performance, travel times to GP’s, crime, unemployment etc. These 38 indicators of deprivation are then grouped into 7 types called domains. These domains are:
• Income
• Employment
• Education
• Health
• Access to Services
• Crime
• Housing
The 7 domains are combined into one SIMD, ranking each data zone in Scotland from 1 (Most Deprived) to 6,976 (Least Deprived). The SIMD allows organisations to target policies and place resources in the areas with greatest need.
The boundaries used to collate the SIMD changed in 2016 as the analysis was based on the 2011 data zones which were produced by the Scottish Government. The previous SIMD’s published by the Scottish Government were based on the Scottish Governments 2001 based data zones. This means that the data zones used in the 2016 SIMD are not directly comparable with previous data zones.
This dataset shows SIMD 2016 data for Dundee City. This is broken down to data zone and intermediate zone level. There are currently 188 data zones in Dundee City.
The data is sourced from Scottish Government - Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2016. The full dataset is available on the Scottish Government website which can be accessed from the link below:
https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/SIMD
The Scottish Government have produced some useful documents to assist greater understanding of the SIMD.
SIMD 2016 Introduction Booklet: https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00504809.pdf
SIMD 2016 Technical Notes: https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00504822.pdf
SIMD 2016 Methodology Booklet: https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00504766.pdf
SIMD 2016 Indicator Overview Booklet: https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00510862.pdf
