, Cabinet Secretary for Social
Justice, Trefnydd and Chief Whip: This morning, the Welsh
Government published the Welsh Index of
Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) 2025. WIMD is the official
measure of relative deprivation for 1,917 small areas in Wales.
It identifies areas with the highest concentrations of several
different types of deprivation and is used to inform
policymaking, allocation of resources, and services for local
areas.
Being deprived does not just mean being poor, it can also mean
having fewer resources and opportunities than we might expect in
our society, for example in terms of health or education. WIMD is
made up of 8 separate domains (or types) of deprivation - income,
employment, health, education, access to services, housing,
physical environment and community safety - each compiled from a
range of different indicators.
The distribution of deprivation across Wales is important when
developing area-based policies, programmes and funding. WIMD can
be used to inform these decisions and give a greater
understanding of deprivation trends within Wales including
identifying the most deprived small areas.
WIMD 2025 shows that:
- the overall picture is similar to that of WIMD 2019, with
pockets of high relative deprivation in the South Wales
cities and valleys, various coastal towns, and some towns in
North East Wales.
- deprivation is dispersed across Wales: all but one of the 22
local authorities contain at least one of the most deprived 10%
of areas in Wales.
- analysis of deep-rooted deprivation looks at areas that have
remained in the top 50 most deprived for all WIMD iterations in
the past 20 years: there are 22 small areas in deep-rooted
deprivation, spread across 10 local authorities.
Guidance on how to use WIMD
appropriately has also been published on the Welsh Government
website.
The Welsh Government are fully committed to tackling poverty and
improving outcomes for people in Wales as an absolute priority,
including those in the most deprived communities. WIMD 2025 will
help in ensuring that support can be targeted to these
communities that need it most.
We have invested over £7bn between 2022 and 2026 to support
households across Wales through programmes to alleviate financial
pressures, help maximise income and to help keep more money in
their pockets.
Our employability programmes help people gain transferable skills
which increase their long-term employability. Programmes also
help integrate disadvantaged groups into the workforce, address
skills shortages and facilitate direct job creation.
As the cost of living remains high, many families continue to
experience difficulties in paying for household essentials. We
are providing a Baby Bundle on a targeted geographical basis that
will help to reduce the financial pressure families face in some
of the most deprived areas of Wales.
Our Child Poverty Strategy for Wales sets out the actions we have
been taking and outlines how we are working across Government and
with partners to maximise the impact of the levers available to
us to tackle child poverty. The strategy looks beyond just income
as it aims to ensure that children living in deprived
circumstances have the same access to services, opportunities and
rights as others. We will be publishing a progress report in
early December which will set out the actions which have been
undertaken since the last update in 2022 to respond to the
objectives and commitments of the strategy.
The challenge of breaking the cycle of poverty is not one we can
solve overnight. The Welsh Government is using all devolved
levers available to tackle poverty, but many of the most powerful
tools — especially around welfare, taxation, and wage policy —
remain reserved to the UK Government.
We are pleased the Chancellor has listened to our call in
relation to welfare reform to scrap the Two-Child Limit, which
will help to tackle the scourge of child poverty. According to
the UK Government, the announcement will bring relief to 69,000
children in Wales who have previously been denied financial
support from the UK benefits system.
The publication of WIMD 2025 will ensure our efforts remain
focused on where we can make the greatest difference, helping to
build a fairer and more equal Wales for all.
