SIMD

Deprivation is recognised as a key determinant of health and has a direct impact on an individual’s life expectancy and quality of life – referred to as healthy life expectancy (see sections below on LE and HLE  for more information).

Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is a standard tool used to identify areas with relatively high levels of deprivation (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 – gov.scot). In using this tool, it allows the population to be split into 5 different sections – called quintiles – based on their level of deprivation, with quintile 1 being the most deprived and quintile 5 the least deprived. This tool considers deprivation across seven domains: income, employment, education, health, access to services, crime and housing (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 – gov.scot).

Figure x summarises the proportion of population for each area in Grampian by deprivation quintile. In Aberdeen City (Figure xa) the population is more polarised than in Aberdeenshire (Figure xb) and Moray (Figure xc) with the highest proportion in both the most deprived quintile (30.7%) and least deprived quintile (28.1%). This polarisation means health inequalities are highly geographically concentrated, particularly in parts of Aberdeen City. Reducing deprivation-linked gaps will require targeted local action, from early years to adulthood. Aberdeenshire has the highest proportion in the two least deprived quintiles (44.6%) and the lowest proportion in the two most deprived quintiles (29.9%). In Moray the majority of the population falls in to quintile 2 and 3 (60.8%) with only 23.1% falling in to the two least deprived quintiles. These differences in deprivation profile means that services need to be delivered in different ways to best meet the needs of the local population, which is challenging.

Figure x – Local population by SIMD Quintile for (a) Aberdeen City, (b) Aberdeenshire and (c) Moray.

(a) Aberdeen City 2025 Population by Local 2020 SIMD Quintile

(b) Aberdeenshire 2025 Population by Local 2020 SIMD Quintile

(c) Moray 2025 Population by Local 2020 SIMD Quintile