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The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) is a relative, area-level measure of deprivation. In England it ranks every one of 33,755 small areas (lower-layer super output areas, LSOAs) from most to least deprived using seven weighted domains. This guide is for researchers who need to pick the right release, read ranks and deciles correctly and avoid the usual misuses. It is based on the 2025 release (published 30 October 2025), with sources checked on 2026-11-07.
What the Index of Multiple Deprivation is
The IMD is the headline index within the English Indices of Deprivation (IoD). The technical report describes the IoD as a set of relative measures of deprivation for small areas of England, built on the 2021 LSOA geography. Each domain rests on a basket of indicators; the IMD 2025 combines the seven domains into one overall relative measure. Two supplementary indices sit alongside it: the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) and the Income Deprivation Affecting Older People Index (IDAOPI).
“Deprivation” here is broader than poverty. The index counts people living in an area who lack money, work, education, health, safety, adequate housing or a decent local environment, and combines those dimensions into a single ranking.
Who runs it and what it covers
The English Indices of Deprivation 2025 are published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) as accredited official statistics, covering England only. They replace the 2019 release.
The seven domains and their weights
| Domain | Weight in the IMD 2025 |
|---|---|
| Income Deprivation | 22.5% |
| Employment Deprivation | 22.5% |
| Education, Skills and Training Deprivation | 13.5% |
| Health Deprivation and Disability | 13.5% |
| Crime | 9.3% |
| Barriers to Housing and Services | 9.3% |
| Living Environment Deprivation | 9.3% |
Source: IoD 2025 Technical Report, Figure 3.2. The 2025 release uses 55 indicators, up from 39 in 2019: 20 are new, 14 were significantly modified and 21 were updated to more recent data; three were removed (Research Report, section 3.4).
Ranks, deciles and scores: how to read them
What is the deprivation index? It is a ranking, not a measurement of how much poverty an area has. For the neighbourhood-level indices, the most deprived LSOA in England is ranked 1 and the least deprived is ranked 33,755. Deciles divide the ranked LSOAs into ten groups: decile 1 is the most deprived 10 per cent of areas nationally and decile 10 the least deprived 10 per cent. Scores sit underneath: the larger the score, the more deprived the area.
The Research Report is explicit that ranks and deciles are relative: they show that one area is more deprived than another but not by how much. An area ranked 1,000 is not half as deprived as one ranked 500. The same report also warns that the description applies to areas, not to every person in them: many non-deprived people live in highly deprived areas, and many deprived people live in the least deprived areas.
What is the most deprived place in England?
There is no single answer, because it depends on the geography and measure. At neighbourhood level the answer is whichever LSOA holds rank 1 in the file you download. At local authority level, the Research Report’s Table 4.1 lists local authority districts by the proportion of their LSOAs in the most deprived 20 per cent nationally; Middlesbrough is first, with 54 of its 90 LSOAs (60.0 per cent). Other tables in the report rank districts by other cut-offs and summary measures, so state which one you use.
How to find and use the data
- Go to the government statistics page “English indices of deprivation 2025” on GOV.UK.
- For a single postcode, use the Local Deprivation Explorer linked from that page.
- For analysis, download the LSOA files. The technical report and GOV.UK page list the LSOA datasets, including IMD ranks and deciles, domain ranks and deciles, scores, population denominators and a single CSV with all ranks, deciles and scores (File 7).
- Join to your own data on the LSOA code, using the 2021 LSOA geography. The IoD 2015 and 2019 used 2011 LSOAs, so older files need a lookup.
- If you need other units such as wards, follow Appendix A of the Research Report on population-weighted aggregation; higher-level summaries are published for local authority districts, upper-tier authorities, Built-up Areas, Local Resilience Forums, Local Enterprise Partnerships and Integrated Care Boards.
- Use the transformed domain scores (File 9) only if you intend to re-weight the domains (Research Report, Appendix B).
- Use the corrected “v2” workbooks: GOV.UK records that an ONS lookup error allocated LSOA E01027305 to Cherwell instead of West Northamptonshire.
- Cite the release, version and file you used, and archive your extract in a data repository with clear metadata.
Strengths and limits for research use
- Strength: a consistent national method at small-area scale, with documented indicators, so areas can be compared within one release.
- Limit, relative not absolute: changes between releases are changes in position relative to other areas.
- Limit, release comparability: the Research Report states the indices are built for accuracy at a point in time, at the expense of backwards comparability. Indicators, population denominators, administrative data collection and geography all changed between 2019 and 2025. Where you compare releases, compare rankings or deciles as snapshots, state that changes are relative, and caveat that some change may come from changed indicators.
- Limit, area versus person: an area-level rank does not describe an individual (the ecological inference problem).
- Limit, local authority comparisons: boundaries change; the report notes 296 districts in the 2025 indices against 317 in the previous update, so use caution comparing district ranks across releases.
Releasing your cleaning and joining code alongside the extract supports reproducibility, and the official files are published as open data that can be shared with proper attribution.
Alternatives: other UK nations’ indices
The English IMD is not the only index. Each nation runs its own, and the rank of an English LSOA is not interchangeable with a rank elsewhere.
| Index | Area unit | Ranking | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (IMD) | 33,755 LSOAs, England | Rank 1 = most deprived; seven domains | MHCLG, GOV.UK |
| Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 (SIMD) | 6,976 data zones, Scotland | Rank 1 = most deprived; seven domains (income, employment, education, health, access to services, crime, housing) | Scottish Government, gov.scot |
Because each index ranks areas only against others in the same country, a combined England and Scotland analysis cannot simply pool ranks. Choose a method that treats each nation’s index separately.
FAQ
What does SIMD 1 and 2 mean?
SIMD is the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, which ranks Scotland’s 6,976 data zones from most deprived (rank 1) to least deprived. Analysts group the ranks into quintiles, where quintile 1 is the most deprived 20 per cent of areas and quintile 5 the least deprived 20 per cent. “SIMD 1 and 2” therefore usually means the two most deprived quintiles (the most deprived 40 per cent); check whether a source means quintiles or deciles. The Scottish Government publishes a rank-to-quintile, decile and vigintile lookup.
What is the Social Deprivation Index (SDI)?
It is a different measure from the IMD and not part of the English Indices of Deprivation. This guide covers the UK indices only; if your paper uses a United States “Social Deprivation Index”, consult its own documentation and do not mix it with IMD ranks.
Is the IMD the same as the English Indices of Deprivation?
No. The IMD is the overall index; the Indices of Deprivation are the IMD plus its seven domain indices, the two supplementary indices and the higher-area summaries.
Which release should I use?
Use the most recent release (2025) for describing current relative patterns, and the release contemporaneous with your data when studying an earlier period. Name the release in your methods.
Sources
- MHCLG, English indices of deprivation 2025, GOV.UK (checked 2026-11-07).
- MHCLG, English Indices of Deprivation 2025: Technical Report (checked 2026-11-07).
- MHCLG, English Indices of Deprivation 2025: Research Report (checked 2026-11-07).
- Scottish Government, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation: data and resources (checked 2026-11-07).
