The completion of the creation of Output Areas (OAs) - small area building bricks for the release of 2001 Census results and for use more widely in Neighbourhood Statistics - was announced in February [more details....]
Vector boundaries
The vector (re-usable) boundaries for the 175,434 OAs in England and Wales are available without charge from Census Customer Services in two forms for users who wish to set up the boundaries in their own Geographical Information Systems in advance of the receipt of the Local Census Statistics. First, there is a file for those who want to set up the boundaries for the whole of England and Wales, available as a shape file on two CDs and in MID/MIF format on a DVD. Second, there is a file, also covering the whole of England and Wales, arranged for those who wish to extract and set up the boundaries for a single local authority or a few authorities, available as a shape file on a DVD or in MID/MIF format on a DVD. All files contain vector boundaries, unique identifiers for OAs, population weighted and geometic centroids for OAs, and area measurements for OAs, together with a look up table of OAs by unit postcodes.
Viewable boundaries
Ward and OA boundaries will also be viewable on topographical base maps - as 1998 ward boundaries are currently viewable through NeSS on the National Statistics Website - in electronic media before or with the release of statistics at ward or OA level. More details will be issued in Census News, together with details of a service to provide hard copy maps.
Terms and conditions
The OA boundaries are in part derived from Ordnance Survey material and the terms and conditions for the use of the vector boundaries on CDs contain an Ordnance Survey licence, the terms of which must be accepted before use. This licence does not restrict use within an organisation or use jointly by organisations which have each already accepted the terms of the licence. But there are some circumstances, particularly commercial value added use of the vector boundaries, where a further licence from Ordnance Survey may be necessary. Census Customer Services should be contacted in any case of doubt. Further details are contained in the Output Prospectus.
Timing of the release
The release of the OA boundaries is later than planned, although in time for preparations before release of the local statistics. The main change in the timing of the production of OAs was to allow compliance with a new National Statistics policy to harmonize output to boundaries as they exist at the end of each calendar year. The OA boundaries were therefore produced to fit the ward and parish/community boundaries legally in place on 31 December 2002, with production continuing in January 2003. This also met the very widespread customer demand for output for up to date areas.
The availability of the OA boundaries has also been delayed by an additional month to allow a limited number of changes and corrections after quality assurance. Perhaps the most significant is that the 'extent of the realm', which includes areas of sea and which was used in the production of OAs, has been retained as the containing outer boundary of the OAs in preference to mean high water mark to avoid some splitting of coastal OAs into two or more parts, but hectare measurements for coastal OAs are for parts where mean high water mark to avoid distortion in density calculations.
Orders
Orders for the CDs should be made to Census Customer Services, stating whether the order is for a file for England and Wales or for a local authority or a limited group of authorities. Orders should state name, organisation, full postal address, e-mail address and telephone number. Customer Services will contact all those who have previously registered an interest in receiving OA boundaries to confirm orders.
Census News
