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Towards a Dynamic View of UK Depriation: Harmonising the IMD Indices using Claimant Count Data

 

GISRUK Presentation, 20 March 2026

Johara Meyer, johara.meyer.25@ucl.ac.uk

  • Small-area deprivation measures have been a key feature of UK policymaking since at least the 1960s

  • Historically national indexes of 'multiple deprivation' were based on annual census data

  • The Carstairs and Morris index for Scotland and the Townsend index for England

  • Since 2001, the Index of Multiple Deprivation is the UK’s official statistic of deprivation

  • IMD considers deprivation across multiple dimensions or ‘domains’ such as employment, health, and education

Introduction

A few months ago the new IMD for England and Wales dropped....

...affecting the allocation of local authority funding within and between UK nations

English Funding Formulas - £47 billion

UK Pride in Place Fund - £5 billion

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2025/english-indices-of-deprivation-2025-statistical-release

  • Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), Northern Irish Multiple Deprivation Measure (NIMDM), English Index of Multiple Deprivation (EIMD), and Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD)
  • National IMDs are not directly comparable
  • Across nations IMD's measure deprivation across broadly similar dimensions

Comparing National IMDs

Comparing National IMDs

Key differences between national IMD measures:

  • Temporal scope
  • Small area geographies
  • Domain weighting shemes
  • Underlying Indicators

  • High relative contributions to overall IMD scores, 20-28% across nations

  • Scores reflect what proportion of a population are 'employment deprived' 

  • In most cases, the underlying indicator is a count of the number of people claiming a range of employment related benefits 

 

  • (Note: Confusingly, the Welsh 'employment domain score' is rescaled from 0-100)

Employment Domain Comparisson 

Employment Domain Measures Comparisson 

NIMDM 2017SIMD 2020WIMD 2025EIMD 2025
Job Seeker’s Allowanceyesyes
yesyes
New Style Jobseeker’s Allowanceyesyesyes
yes
Universal Credit (UC) in ’out of work’ categoriesyesyesyesyes
Income Support----------yesyes
Incapacity Benefityesyesyesyes
Severe Disablement Allowanceyesyesyesyes
Employment and Support Allowanceyesyesyesyes
New Style Employment and Support Allowanceyesyesyesyes
Carer’s Allowanceyes-----yesyes
People who do not receive benefits or income from employmentyes---------------

Non-Benfit Measures

Disability

Related

Non-Disability

Related

Benfit

Measures

claimant count

Harmonisation Approach

  1. Decide Reference Nation
  2. Model overall IMD scores as function of Claimant Count (CC)
  3. Restandardise Residuals
  4. Calculate Harmonised IMD Score
  5. Re-rank and convert to deciles
  6. Adjust deciles for population 
IMD.score_W=β0_W​+β1_W​CC_W+ϵ_W
restd.ϵ_WE = σ_E * (ϵ_W/σ_W)
harm.IMD.score_W=β0_E​+β1_E​CC_W+restd.ϵ_W

Harmonising WIMD with EIMD as Reference Index

IMD Decile
 		E
​(%)		N
​​(%)		S
(%)		W
(%)
19.3619.5810.8314.49
29.6713.89.2614.97
39.7914.888.713.28
49.8212.297.7515.87
59.9410.219.2412.33
610.18.759.369.92
710.187.489.858.47
810.297.529.397.24
910.44.6711.413.39
1010.450.8414.210.04
IMD Decile
 		E
(%)		N
(%)		S
(%)		W
(%)
19.8422.124.0715.99
29.8221.05613.68
39.9517.696.1612.97
49.9713.636.3614.69
510.1210.917.0412.45
610.338.897.568.88
710.254.3210.18.61
810.291.2912.076.25
910.250.113.265.7
109.18027.380.79

Decile Distribution Claimant Count Harmonisation Model 

Decile Distribution Employment Domain Harmonisation Model

by decile

by nation

Next Steps (Before GISRUK)

  • Identify small areas which are unfairly represented in the national IMD

  • Areas where CC increased/decreased significantly between index year and 2025 and rank is displaced in harmonised IMD model

  • Build a sythenthic referenced distribution to build harmonised IMD without a reference index

N
S
W

E            W            S

Agreement in

Decile Distribution

IMD Decile
 		ENSW
19.3619.5810.8314.49
29.6713.89.2614.97
39.7914.888.713.28
49.8212.297.7515.87
59.9410.219.2412.33
610.18.759.369.92
710.187.489.858.47
810.297.529.397.24
910.44.6711.413.39
1010.450.8414.210.04
IMD Decile
 		ENSW
19.8422.124.0715.99
29.8221.05613.68
39.9517.696.1612.97
49.9713.636.3614.69
510.1210.917.0412.45
610.338.897.568.88
710.254.3210.18.61
810.291.2912.076.25
910.250.113.265.7
109.18027.380.79

Decile Distribution Claimant Count Harmonisation Model 

IMD Decile

Decile Distribution Employment Domain Harmonisation Model

Percentage (%)

CAMDEN 014A

 

Lowest IMD

Scores

Highest IMD

Scores

1

4

3

2

5

IMD Scored, Ranked, Deciled

20% 

40% 

IMD Decile distributionENSW
19.4418.5310.6613.92
29.6515.369.5813.95
39.7913.48.3814.58
49.8612.177.914.93
59.9410.119.312.13
610.039.0310.259.7
710.27.359.498.83
810.277.049.857.12
910.35.9211.294.65
1010.521.0913.30.18
IMD Decile distributionENSW
19.8821.224.4315.07
29.8221.145.7713.94
310.0217.025.8212.77
41013.495.8215.21
510.1810.496.9411.64
610.229.358.459.12
710.096.2110.899.15
810.111.0913.67.14
910.19013.985.52
109.49024.30.43

Decile Distribution Claimant Count Harmonisation Model (Northern Ireland)

IMD Decile

Decile Distribution Employment Domain Harmonisation Model (Northern Ireland)

Percentage (%)

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