Deprivation has long been linked with poor health and lower life expectancy. In May 2005 the new 'Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure' was published by NISRA. This report measured levels of deprivation throughout all the wards in Northern Ireland against a number of indicators.

A new geography, known as Super Output Area, has been introduced for the new multiple deprivation measure.  Historically, the standard unit of presenting small area statistics has been the electoral wards. However, in Northern Ireland wards tend to vary greatly in population size. This is not ideal when it comes to drawing comparisons.

Super Output Areas are constrained by population size and will try to follow existing ward boundaries. The ideal population size for a SOA is 2000 with a lower limit of 1300 and an upper limit of 2800.  Each individual ward has been assessed. Those above the upper threshold have been split and those below have been joined with a neighbouring ward to satisfy the population bandings.  There are a total of 890 SOAs in Northern Ireland.

In Banbridge only two of the existing wards have been changed when moving to SOAs.  The ward of Ballydown has been split into two SOAs know as Ballydown 1 and Ballydown 2. Similarly the ward of Dromore South has been split into Dromore South 1 and Dromore South 2. In all other wards in the District the existing ward boundary has simply become the SOA.  To prevent confusion the existing ward names have been used for the SOA, for example, Ballyward Ward became Ballyward SOA. Maps of the new SOA boundaries can be viewed on the NISRA website. The following table shows the Banbridge SOAs by their multiple deprivation rank and score.

SOA	Rank	Score
The Cut	271	26.17
Edenderry	309	23.80
Rathfriland	333	22.51
Gilford	397	19.61
Ballyward	419	18.64
Lawrencetown	496	15.81
Katesbridge	506	15.57
Loughbrickland	543	14.13
Fort	562	13.52
Dromore North	575	13.17
Banbridge West	589	12.49
Gransha	625	11.26
Bannside	662	10.04
Dromore South (1)	684	9.45
Seapatrick	710	8.66
Quilly	745	7.72
Dromore South (2)	773	6.85
Ballydown (1)	807	5.40
Ballydown (2)	842	4.33

All of the SOAs in Northern Ireland were assigned a score and then a rank.  The most deprived SOA in Northern Ireland was given a rank of 1 and the least deprived was given the rank of 890. Therefore our most deprived ward is The Cut and the least deprived is Ballydown (2). The Banbridge District has no SOAs within the 30% most deprived in Northern Ireland (ranked below 267). Based on the average score of its SOAs Banbridge ranks 23rd out of the 26 council areas were 1 is the most deprived and 26 the least deprived.  Based on the average rank of its SOAs Banbridge ranks 21st out of the 26 council areas were 1 is the most deprived and 26 the least deprived.