Deprivation indices in China : establishing principles for application and interpretation

Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMDs) aim to measure living standards at the small area level. These indices were originally developed in the United Kingdom, but there is a growing interest in adapting them for use in China. However, due to data limitations, Chinese deprivation indices sometimes diverge considerably in approaches and are not always connected with the underlying concepts within UK analysis. In this paper, we seek to bring direction and conceptual rigour to this nascent literature by establishing a set of core principles for IMD estimation that are relevant and feasible in the Chinese context. These principles are based on specifying deprivation domains from theory, selecting the most appropriate measurements for these domains, and then applying rigorous statistical techniques to combine them into an IMD. We apply these principles to create an IMD for Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei Province. We use this to investigate the spatial patterns of deprivation in Shijiazhuang, focussing on clustering and centralisation of deprivation as well as exploring different deprivation typologies. We highlight two distinct types of deprived areas. One is clustered in industrial areas on the edge of the city, while the second is found more centrally and contains high proportions of low-skilled service workers.