Small area indicators and social change

This article examines the relevance of measures of social change for small areas and how these can be used in need assessment. Specifically, this article explicates the problems of selecting a limited group of indicators from among the broad panoply of indicators available, and of determining the different kinds of information provided by indicators controlling for the level of aggregation. The use of small area social indicators to do need assessment is illustrated using data from the 1970 and 1980 Health Demographic Profile System.