1 of 3

Independent Lesson: Investigating the Index of Multiple Deprivation

Deprivation: if we’re thinking about life in the UK, what resources are considered necessities in British society? In other words, what resources would you be lacking if you’re deprived in the UK?

Inequality: do we need to take action to reduce inequality in society? If yes, why? If no, why not?

Deprivation and inequality: why is it important for the government to measure both of these? What can they do with this data?

�

NOTES FROM THE VIDEO:

The English IMD has seven domains. These contribute different proportions to the overall score.

Think about:

Why do you think income and employment are the most significant domains for the final score?

Are any elements of life not included in the index?

Do you agree with the contribution each domain makes to the total, e.g. do you think it’s right that income makes up 22.5% of the total score while crime makes up 9.3%?

GLOSSARY:

Deprivation: lacking the resources considered to be the necessities for living in a society.

Domains: parts or components of something such as the IMD.

Index of Multiple Deprivation: a measure used by the Government to show how deprived an area is compared to the rest of the country.

Inequality: the state of not being equal. Inequality exists in a place if people have different levels of access to resources such as housing, income and public services.

Lower-layer super output area (LSOA): an small area of the country that has an average population of 1500.

Relative: compared to somewhere (or someone) else.

2 of 3

What does LSOA mean? (slide 7)

Use the map them to explore the relative deprivation of: (slide 9)

the LSOA that contains your school
the LSOA that contains your home or another family members home

Think about: �Which domain does the area perform best in?��Which domain does the area perform least well in? ��How has the relative deprivation of the area changed from 2015 to 2019 to 2025? ��How does this link to your study of this place? Has there been any regeneration or wider change to the area which can help to explain this change (either a positive or negative change)?

English IMD 2019: key findings (slide 11)

82% of the neighbourhoods that were in the ‘most deprived’ category in 2025 were also the most deprived according to the 2019 data. Does this surprise you? If so, why? If not, why not? �

Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Hartlepool, Kingston upon Hull and Manchester are the local authorities with the highest proportions of ‘most deprived’ areas in the UK. How does this link to deindustrialisation and the spiral of decline that you we studied in globalisation? �

Two London boroughs (Tower Hamlets and Hackney) rank as the most deprived regarding income deprivation among children. Alongside Newham, Islington and Southwark, these 5 London boroughs rank as the most deprived regarding income deprivation among older people. Does this surprise you? If so, why? If not, why not?

IMD 2025 key findings: the most deprived LSOAs: (slide 12)

Where are the top 10 most deprived LSOAs based?

The most deprived neighbourhood in England is in Jaywick. What do the articles tell you about this area? (slide 12)

Independent Lesson: Investigating the Index of Multiple Deprivation

3 of 3

Using the IMD (slide 13)

Why is it important that the IMD is a relative measure? What does this mean?

Why does this make the IMD a powerful tool to use?

What problems does this present for using the IMD?

Using the IMD in the context of regeneration (slide 14)

When the IMD is published, it uses the most up-to-date data at the time. However, for the IMD 2025, lots of data is from March 2024.

Why is this a problem if using the IMD to measure the success of regeneration?

It is common to describe an area by saying whether it falls among the most deprived 10%, 20% or 30% of small areas in England. There is no definitive cut-off at which an area is described as ‘deprived’.

Why is this a problem for determining the need for regeneration?

London’s performance in the 2025 IMD (slide 15)

Read about London’s performance in this London Datastore article. Think about:

How deprived London is relative to the rest of the country

What the spatial pattern of deprivation is across London

Which areas are now less deprived than they were in 2015 compared to areas that are now more deprived

If you have studied areas in London, how they performed in the 2019 index. �

In the age of instant data online, do we still need the IMD?

Read the article (slide 16). Then consider:

How has IMD data been used in the past?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the IMD to allocate government funding?

Which of the limitations of the IMD given in this article is the most significant and why?

Independent Lesson: Investigating the Index of Multiple Deprivation