The Indices of deprivation 2004 is a deprivation index at the small area level, created by the British Department for Communities and Local Government. It is unusual in its inclusion of a measure of geographical access as an element of deprivation and in its direct measure of poverty. The ID 2004 is based on the idea of distinct dimensions of deprivation which can be recognised and measured separately. These are then combined into a single overall measure. The Index is made up of seven distinct dimensions of deprivation called Domain Indices. Whilst it is known as the ID2004, most of the data actually dates from 2001.
History
Communities and Local Government commissioned the Social Disadvantage Research Centre at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Oxford to update the Indices of deprivation 2004 for England. Following an extensive public consultation, an independent academic peer review and a significant programme of work, the new Indices of Deprivation 2007 were produced in December 2007. The new Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007 is a Lower layer Super Output Area level measure of multiple deprivation, and is made up of seven LSOA level domain indices. There are also two supplementary indices. Summary measures of the IMD 2007 are presented at local authority district level and county council level. The LSOA level Domain Indices and IMD 2007, together with the local authority district and county summaries are referred to as the Indices of Deprivation 2007. The ID 2007 are based on the approach, structure and methodology that were used to create the previous ID 2004. The ID 2007 updates the ID 2004 using more up-to-date data. The new IMD 2007 contains seven domains which relate to income deprivation, employment deprivation, health deprivation and disability, education skills and training deprivation, barriers to housing and services, living environment deprivation, and crime.
Each Domain contains a number of indicators, totalling 37. Two supplementary indexes have been created as a subset of the Income domain. These relate to income deprivation affecting children and income deprivation affecting older people.
Geography
The Indices of deprivation 2004 are measured at the Lower Layer Super Output Area level. Super Output Areas were developed by the Office for National Statistics from the Census 2001 Output Areas. There are two levels, the lowest being smaller than wards and containing a minimum of 1,000 people and 400 households. The middle layer contains a minimum of 5,000 people and 2,000 households. Earlier proposals to introduce Upper Layer Super Output Areas were dropped due to lack of demand. In addition to Super Output Areas, Summaries of the ID 2004 are presented at District level, County level and Primary Care Trust level. While each SOA is of higher resolution than the highest resolution ward index data of the IMD2000 and therefore better at identifying "pockets" of deprivation within wards the 2004 system has its problems. Some areas of deprivation can still be hidden because of the size of SOAs. Examples of this can be found by comparing central areas of Keighley using the Bradford District Deprivation Index with the ID2004. Additionally SOAs were tasked with providing complete coverage of England and Wales - this combined with the minimum population and household counts within each SOA means that large areas of agricultural, commercial and industrial land have to be included within a residential area that borders them - thus when some very deprived residential areas are mapped, a large area of supposed deprivation emerges, however most of it may not be so but rather has a wide area of relative affluence around it - these can appear to be a greater problem than many smaller completely residential SOAs in which higher concentrations of deprived people live but mixed with more affluent neighbours.
