Deprivation and its Spatial Articulation in the Republic of Ireland

Haase, T. and Pratschke, J. (2005)

Study which outlines a new approach to the construction of multi-dimensional deprivation measures based on the Census of Population, 1991, 1996 and 2002. This report remains the essential reading to understand the conceptual thinking behind the Irish deprivation measures. Study commissioned by Pobal, 60 pages.

Trutz Haase and Jonathan Pratschke were the first authors to develop a Census-based deprivation index for the Republic of Ireland. The index is used by a wide number of Government Departments and has been the principal source for the designation and implementation of area-based strategies to target social needs in the Republic of Ireland over the past twenty years. The index has gained international recognition for being the first census-based index that has achieved true comparability of a multivariate measure of deprivation over successive census periods. Using confirmatory factor analysis rather than the more familiar exploratory factor analysis, the index utilises a fixed structure matrix and measurement scale in order to facilitate the direct comparability of deprivation scores over space and time.