A deprivation index measures poverty in an area by considering factors such as income, consumption, education, health, and crime. It helps researchers understand poverty and inform government authorities about effective programs.
A deprivation index is a measure used to determine how much human deprivation, or poverty, exists in a given area. The obvious aspect that is measured here is household income, but there are also other aspects that help researchers determine whether a household is poor. Other factors are consumption, education, health and crime. The deprivation index is designed to be backwards compatible so that researchers can find trends in areas that increase or decrease poverty. One of the key aspects of these reports is to show which areas are improving and which are getting worse.
This index is a report used to help researchers understand the level and amount of poverty occurring in an area. The information is used for a variety of reasons, such as creating new laws to help those in need, understanding what factors make poverty happen, and determining whether an area is improving. By graphing deprivation information, researchers are able to see whether areas are responding positively to changes.
Most poverty reports only consider income as a factor in determining whether a household is poor. A deprivation index takes many factors into account. Two of the most obvious are income and consumption. Income is the amount of money brought into a household and consumption is the amount of money spent on bills and necessities. When adding consumption as a factor, households with incomes above poverty can still be considered deprived if they spend most or most of their income on bills and other necessities.
Less obvious factors include health, crime and education. These factors add up because deprivation exists across multiple layers and dimensions. High crime, poor education, and poor health often tend toward poverty—if not now, then in the near future. By adding these factors together, the deprivation index is able to determine true poverty, not just a low-income household.
Another reason to graph and verify these factors is because it shows exactly how much these factors weigh in deprivation. For example, from a statistical perspective, this graphing system can show the importance of education in separating a private from a non-private home. This aspect helps governments determine which factors need more attention to alleviate deprivation.
A deprivation index is designed to be backwards compatible. This aspect of the index allows researchers to quickly show which areas have gotten better or worse because of laws or other factors. From there, researchers can inform government authorities about which programs are helping and which are worsening or stagnating the situation.
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