Community Health Statistics

The Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation is produced annually by the Welsh Assembly's statistical directorate and the Welsh Local Government Data Unit. It is used as a measure of deprivation for small areas in Wales.

The results of the index allow us to compare levels of deprivation on a regional basis- as a project which focuses on the regeneration of five specific local authorities; this has been useful in the Heads of the Valleys area.

In order to monitor levels of deprivation- England and Wales have been divided in to Super Output Areas- each with roughly the same population.

The Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation provides information on the smallest of these Super output Areas; known as Lower Super Output Areas. A Lower Super Output Area is not the same as an electoral boundary- each of the five Local Authorities in the Heads of the Valleys project are divided into their individual electoral divisions- and then within these divisions, divided up again into LSOAs (Lower Super Output Areas).

The Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation has produced a map for each of the Heads of the Valleys five Local Authorities showing which of it's LSOAs are most deprived and which are least deprived. Therefore by using these maps in the index, it is possible to identify which areas within the Heads of the Valleys fall into the most deprived category and those which fall into the least deprived. The index groups the LSOAs into 5 categories of deprivation- The first category is the 1-90 most deprived areas and the last category is the 951-1896 least deprived areas.