Measurement of Social Disadvantage and its Spatial Articulation in the Republic of Ireland

This paper contributes to policy research by developing a reliable aggregate measure of social need in small areas and by describing how this index can be used to evaluate public interventions in disadvantaged areas. Spatially targeted initiatives to combat disadvantage have been implemented in many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, and the availability of European Union funding has encouraged their diffusion. The longitudinal analysis and evaluation of these initiatives is difficult using existing indices as these do not facilitate comparisons over time. This paper describes an alternative approach that relies on Confirmatory Factor Analysis and permits diachronic analyses.