Measuring small-area level deprivation in Belgium: The Belgian Index of Multiple Deprivation

Background In the past, deprivation has been mostly captured through simple and univariate measures such as low income or poor educational attainment in research on health and social inequalities in Belgium. This paper presents a shift towards a more complex, multidimensional measure of deprivation at the aggregate level and describes the development of the first Belgian Indices of Multiple Deprivation (BIMDs) for the years 2001 and 2011. Methods The BIMDs are constructed at the level of the smallest administrative unit in Belgium, the statistical sector. They are a combination of six domains... Mehr ...