The Scottish Government launched its latest Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) –SIMD20 – on 28 January 2020. It ranks datazones (some 700 people on average) across Scotland from 1 (most deprived) to 6976 (least deprived). As an index, it measures relative not absolute deprivation (i.e. how multiple deprivation compares between datazones, rather than how much deprivation is in each) across small areas in Scotland.

Please note that the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 has been revised as a result of a problem identified with the income domain ranks provided by the Department for Work and Pensions. The revision only affects the income domain ranks and overall SIMD ranks (referred to as SIMD 2020v2). The impact is minimal for the majority of data zones, and the remainder of the SIMD 2020 is not affected. SIMD 2020v2 ranks should now be used when carrying out any analyses.

The documents within this post have been updated to reflect the revision.

A KnowFife briefing summarising the SIMD 2020 picture in Fife is available here.

Click the area name to access KnowFife Area Briefings. These provide details of how SIMD has changed throughout Fife since the 2016 SIMD alongside detailed information for the datazones within the Local Area Committee/Locality Area:

• North East Fife;
• South and West Fife;
• Levenmouth;
• Kirkcaldy;
• Dunfermline;
• Cowdenbeath ;
• Glenrothes 

A creative SIMD comic published by Scottish Government 2020 illustrates ‘A Place in Time’ using Leven and Buckhaven as examples to illustrate and demonstrate SIMD application. This comic is an output from the project ‘ Visualising Inequalities and can be accessed here.