IMD

The IMD package provides easy access to the Indices of Multiple Deprivation for the UK’s nations at various geographical levels:

• England: Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA), Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA), Ward, and Local Authority
• Wales: LSOA, MSOA, Ward, and Local Authority
• Scotland: Data Zone, Intermediate Zone, and Council Area
• Northern Ireland: Super Output Area and Local Government District

Installation

Install the released version of IMD from CRAN:

install.packages("IMD")

Alternatively, you can install the development version from GitHub with:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("humaniverse/IMD")

Usage

The IMD package provides several datasets for the IMD in each UK nation:

England

• Lower Layer Super Output Areas: IMD::imd_england_lsoa
• Middle Layer Super Output Areas: IMD::imd_england_msoa
• Wards: IMD::imd_england_ward
• Local Authorities: IMD::imd_england_lad

Sub-domains of deprivation are also available for England. These include two in the Education domain (‘children and young people’ and ‘adult skills’), two for the Barriers domain (‘geographical barriers’ and ‘wider barriers’), and two for the Living Environment domain (‘indoors’ and ‘outdoors’)

• Sub-domains for LSOAs: IMD::imd_england_lsoa_subdomains
• Sub-domains for MSOAs: IMD::imd_england_msoa_subdomains
• Sub-domains for wards: IMD::imd_england_ward_subdomains
• Sub-domains for Local Authorities: IMD::imd_england_lad_subdomains

Community Needs Index: IMD::cni_england_ward17

Wales

• Lower Layer Super Output Areas: IMD::imd_wales_lsoa
• Middle Layer Super Output Areas: IMD::imd_wales_msoa
• Wards: IMD::imd_wales_ward
• Local Authorities: IMD::imd_wales_lad

Community Needs Index: IMD::cni_wales_msoa11

Scotland

• Data Zones: IMD::imd_scotland_dz
• Intermediate Zones: IMD::imd_scotland_iz
• Council Areas: IMD::imd_scotland_lad

Community Needs Index: IMD::cni_scotland_iz11

Northern Ireland

• Super Output Areas: IMD::imd_northern_ireland_soa
• Local Government Districts: IMD::imd_northern_ireland_lad

Community Needs Index: IMD::cni_northern_ireland_soa11

Composite 2020 UK Index of Multiple Deprivation

We have also included the composite 2020 UK Index of Multiple Deprivation produced by mySociety, allowing comparison of deprivation across UK nations. For more information about how and when to use this version of the IMD, see their README.

Rather than providing a copy of this data, the IMD package loads the data hosted on mySociety’s GitHub. To load these files, run the following code:

imd_uk <- load_composite_imd(nation = "E")

This function defaults to loading the England-focused composite index; change the nation parameter to the first letter of one of the devolved UK nations to load the other versions.

Example

How many wards in Wales are there with the 100% of the population living in areas classified as among the most deprived?

library(IMD)

imd_wales_ward |> 
  dplyr::filter(Extent == 1) |> 
  dplyr::count()
#> # A tibble: 1 x 1
#>       n
#>   <int>
#> 1    14

Accessing the data for non-R users

We’ve provided .csv files for each geographical area in each nation:

England

• Lower Layer Super Output Areas: imd_england_lsoa.csv
• Middle Layer Super Output Areas: imd_england_msoa.csv
• Wards: imd_england_ward.csv
• Local Authorities: imd_england_lad.csv

Sub-domains of deprivation are also available for England. These include two in the Education domain (‘children and young people’ and ‘adult skills’), two for the Barriers domain (‘geographical barriers’ and ‘wider barriers’), and two for the Living Environment domain (‘indoors’ and ‘outdoors’)

• Sub-domains for LSOAs: imd_england_lsoa_subdomains.csv
• Sub-domains for MSOAs: imd_england_msoa_subdomains.csv
• Sub-domains for wards: imd_england_ward_subdomains.csv
• Sub-domains for Local Authorities: imd_england_lad_subdomains.csv

Community Needs Index: community-needs-index-england.csv

Wales

• Lower Layer Super Output Areas: imd_wales_lsoa.csv
• Middle Layer Super Output Areas: imd_wales_msoa.csv
• Wards: imd_wales_ward.csv
• Local Authorities: imd_wales_lad.csv

Community Needs Index: community-needs-index-wales.csv

Scotland

• Data Zones: imd_scotland_dz.csv
• Intermediate Zones: imd_scotland_iz.csv
• Council Areas: imd_scotland_lad.csv

Community Needs Index: community-needs-index-scotland.csv

Northern Ireland

• Super Output Areas: imd_northern_ireland_soa.csv
• Local Government Districts: imd_northern_ireland_lad.csv

Community Needs Index: community-needs-index-northern-ireland.csv

Getting help

If you encounter a clear bug, please file an issue with a minimal reproducible example on GitHub.

Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.