Deprivation Glossary

Deprivation

Deprivation refers to people’s unmet needs, a lack of access to opportunities and resources which we might expect in our society.

Indices of Deprivation (IoD)

The Indices of Deprivation (IoD) covers a set of relative measures of deprivation for small areas (Lower-layer Super Output Areas) across England, based on seven different domains of deprivation:

• Income Deprivation
• Employment Deprivation
• Education, Skills and Training Deprivation
• Health and Disability Deprivation
• Crime Deprivation
• Barriers to Housing and Services Deprivation
• Living Environment Deprivation

Two supplementary indices are also available; the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) and the Income Deprivation Affecting Older People Index (IDAOPI).

The IMD25, domain indices and the supplementary indices, together with the higher area summaries, are collectively referred to as the IoD2025.

Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD)

Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) combines information from the seven domains to produce an overall relative measure of deprivation. The domains are combined using the following weights:

• Income Deprivation: 22.5%
• Employment Deprivation: 22.5%
• Education, Skills and Training Deprivation: 13.5%
• Health and Disability Deprivation: 13.5%
• Crime Deprivation: 9.3%
• Barriers to Housing and Services Deprivation: 9.3%
• Living Environment Deprivation: 9.3%

The weights have been derived from consideration of the academic literature on poverty and deprivation, as well as consideration of the levels of robustness of the indicators. A fuller account is given in section 3 and Appendix G of the IoD2025 Technical Report.

Lower-layer Super Output Area (LSOA)

LSOAs are small areas designed to be of a similar population size, with an average of approximately 1,600 residents or 650 households. There are 33,755 LSOAs in England. They are a standard statistical geography and were produced by the Office for National Statistics for the reporting of small area statistics. LSOAs are referred to as ‘neighbourhoods’ throughout this release.

Decile

A decile is calculated by ranking the 33,755 neighbourhoods in England from most deprived to least deprived and dividing them into 10 equal groups (i.e. each containing 3,375 or 3,376 neighbourhoods). These deciles range from the most deprived 10 per cent of neighbourhoods nationally to the least deprived 10 per cent of neighbourhoods nationally.

Official government statistics

The IoD and IMD are accredited official statistics from Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG). The IoD have been produced by MHCLG and its predecessors since 2000. The IoD 2025 is the most recent release.