Identifying and measuring dimensions of urban deprivation in Montreal: An analysis of the 1996 census data

This paper uses data from the 1996 Canadian census to examine and measure t he spatial structure and intensity of urban deprivation in Montreal. Urban deprivation emerged as an important theme in urban studies and urban geogra phy during the 1990s. Since the early 1980s, the Montreal urban area, parti cularly the Island of Montreal, has experienced an increase in urban social problems, brought on largely by economic restructuring, recessions and the out-migration of residents and businesses to suburban communities. Twenty indicators of urban deprivation are drawn from the census and analysed by w ay of a principal components analysis first to identify the main types of d eprivation in the city and then to measure its intensity. In the process, a general deprivation index (GDI) is devised which can be applied to study t he spatial aspects of this phenomenon in other Canadian cities. The study i dentified six main types of deprivation in the city and found that they wer e most visible on the Island of Montreal, especially in the central and eas tern parts. Additionally, it found that urban deprivation in not confined t o the inner city, as several of the most severely deprived neighbourhoods a re located outside the central city and even in the off-Island suburbs.