Can IMD identify individual people?

The Index of Multiple Deprivation describes areas, not individuals. It should not be treated as a personal label.

An area based measure

IMD is calculated for small neighbourhoods, not for households or named people. Each area receives a score and rank that reflects the overall level of deprivation in that place.

Everyone who lives in the same statistical area shares the same IMD result, regardless of their personal situation.

What IMD can tell you

IMD can help you understand:

Whether an area is more or less deprived compared with others in England
Which domains such as income, employment or housing are contributing to that position
How deprivation is distributed across a town, city or region

This is valuable for planning services, targeting support and analysing inequalities between places.

What IMD cannot tell you

IMD cannot say:

Which individuals within an area are experiencing deprivation
Exactly how well off or disadvantaged any given household is
How a specific person will feel or behave because of where they live

There will always be people in more deprived areas who are doing relatively well, and people in less deprived areas who are facing serious challenges.

Using IMD without labelling people

Good practice when using IMD results includes:

Talking about more or less deprived areas rather than poor people
Combining IMD with local insight and other data sources
Recognising the strengths and assets of communities, not only the challenges

Used in this way, IMD can support fairer decisions without reinforcing stigma or stereotypes.