In general, it can be assumed that the demand for psychiatric services is greatest in socially-deprived areas. The Jarman score is a standard measure that consists of eight sociodemographic indices and is used for assigning extra finances to primary care in deprived areas where there is most work. In Great Britain, it has been shown that this score is closely linked to psychiatric admissions. In this study, a version of the Jarman score has been used for 81 areas in Amsterdam. The study examines whether the score is more closely linked to psychiatric admissions than individual demographic variables, factors obtained by principal components analysis and standardised mortality rates. There is a significant correlation between the Jarman score and both crude and standardised admission rates (.50 and .53 respectively). Comparable correlations are found for the PCA-factor Socio-Economic Deprivation. In regression analysis using all variables, the Jarman score is part of the best predictive model (for crude admission rates: R = 44%), together with the variable of persons per household. The Jarman score provides a fairly good indication of the degree of deprivation for city areas and of the risk areas in terms of admission.