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The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

The Scottish Index of Multiple DeprivationSIMD16 logo

The Scottish Government's official tool to identify areas of multiple deprivation in Scotland.

Data & Look-Ups

Interactive maps

Documents

Download data (xlsx files):

Look-up files (xlsx files): 

The new data zone boundaries with SIMD16 ranks (zipped shapefile):

More tools and analysis

Anything missing here? Send us an email at simd@gov.scot.

News

  • Our user survey attracted over 100 responses: a big thank you to all those who responded and we will be highlighting the main findings in the next SIMD newsletter. 
  • Our latest SIMD newsletter was published in May 2019. Earlier newsletters can be found here: SIMD Newsletters
  • SIMD visualisations: interactive charts and lava lamps.
  • We received the Civil Service Use of Evidence Award 2017 for SIMD16: Civil Service Awards 2017
  • We also received the RSS Statistical Excellence Award in Official Statistics 2017: RSS Website 
  • We published openSIMD - R code and documentation to calculate SIMD16 from the indicators: openSIMD

Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) identifies small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland in a consistent way. It allows effective targeting of policies and funding where the aim is to wholly or partly tackle or take account of area concentrations of multiple deprivation.

SIMD ranks small areas (called data zones) from most deprived (ranked 1) to least deprived (ranked 6,976). People using SIMD will often focus on the data zones below a certain rank, for example, the 5%, 10%, 15% or 20% most deprived data zones in Scotland.

SIMD provides a wealth of information to help improve the understanding about the outcomes and circumstances of people living in the most deprived areas in Scotland.

Measuring Deprivation Advisory Group

  • The Measuring Deprivation Advisory Group (MDAG) is made up of a combination of data suppliers and users of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.
  • The group provides advice on issues such as the needs of users; development priorities; methodological options; quality of outputs; and dissemination and guidance on the use of outputs.
  • The MDAG page provides meeting papers and more information on the group's remit.

SIMD 2012

The latest SIMD, SIMD16, was published on 31 August 2016. All SIMD16 content can be found at the top of this page.

The following legacy pages relate to the previous SIMD, SIMD 2012, and are no longer being updated:

  • Guidance and Analysis Guidance and analysis papers giving examples of how the SIMD can be used.
  • Background Data and Tools The data used to construct the SIMD domains and overall SIMD, including: ranks and scores for each domain along with relevant population denominators.
  • Background and Methodology Information on the background, methodology and development of the SIMD;
  • Publications A general report with summary analysis is published on the website, while comprehensive information on the domains, indicators and methodology used in the SIMD can be found in the technical report;
  • FAQs Frequently Asked Questions explaining how to make best use of the SIMD.
  • Presentations Details of previous presentations and how to go about arranging a presentation.