The structure for release of the English Indices of Deprivation 2004 is more detailed than the last release in 2000, the data has been released at areas called Super Output Areas (SOA). SOAs are based on both population and households contained within. The average population for each SOA is 1,500 persons, and the average number of households per SOA is 650.

It should be noted that SOAs do NOT reflect neighbourhoods. SOAs enable pockets of deprivation to be highlighted that would potentially be lost at ward level.

Although SOAs offer a very good level of identifying deprivation, it could be argued that within each SOA there may potentially lie hidden pockets of deprivation that are lost due to the population weighted method at SOA level.

Along with data released at SOA level, separate data has been released at District level.

Districts are complex to dsecribe as a whole or to compare for several reasons. First, districts can vary enormously in population size. Further, some districts may have a more ‘mixed’ population, containing more variation in deprivation and in some places deprivation may be concentrated in severe pockets rather than being more evenly spread. This makes an ‘overall picture’ more difficult to establish.

It should be noted that no single summary measure is favoured over another, as there is no single best way of describing or comparing areas.