Deprivation to many means poverty and is not an easy term to measure. Poverty impacts on families, children and the whole of society and its consequences are far-reaching: creating problems of social isolation: low educational attainment: unemployment: impacting on mental and physical health and social interaction. It can be both relative (for example someone may be living in overcrowded accommodation, whereas someone else may be homeless). It is also subjective, as individuals we will place different priorities to various factors in our lives.
Deprivation can be defined as the consequence of a lack of income and other resources, which cumulatively can be seen as living in poverty. The relative deprivation approach to poverty examines the indicators of deprivation, these can then be related back to income levels and resources.
One of the most common measures of deprivation is the Indices of Multiple Deprivation which applies weightings to different themes (housing, health and well-being, education and skills, income deprivation, crime. Nottingham has high levels of deprivation and ranks 11th out of the 317 districts in England using the average score measure. Details of the Indices of Multiple Deprivation are provided in the link below and the Indices are often used to evidence funding by identifying areas with higher levels of deprivation. They are updated every three years.
Nottingham City comprises of 182 lower super output areas (LSOAs). In England, there are 32,844 lower super output areas and each one has been ranked according to the measures of deprivation. 1 is the most deprived and 32,844 is the least deprived.
The IMD is created by OCSI (Oxford Consultant for Social Inclusion) for the Department for Communities and Local Government. More details can be found on their website.