This note is an up-dated version of the notes issued on 28 March, 7 May, 4 and 14 July 2003.

Vector boundaries
The vector (re-usable) boundaries for the 175,434 OAs in England and Wales are available without charge from Census Customer Services for users who wish to set up the boundaries in their own Geographical Information Systems. The boundaries are available on a single DVD.

In addition to the vector boundaries, contains unique identifiers for Output Areas, population weighted and geometric centroids for Output Areas, and area measurements for output Areas, together with a lookup table of Output Areas by unit postcodes.

The boundaries were initially released in Summer 2003. Whilst the boundaries remain unchanged, they were re-issued in January 2004 to correct some errors in the postcode to Output Area lookup table, and to remove some technical problems with boundary intersections experienced by users of the MID/MIF format files.

To order the vector boundaries click HERE.

Postcode headcounts
The postcode headcounts provide counts (with small cell adjustment) of households, persons, males and females for unit postcodes (including parts of postcodes split by ward and parish boundaries) as at Census Day. The counts are available on a CD containing files in .CSV, .TXT, .DBF and .MDB formats.

The headcounts were first released in Summer 2003 with a warning that some errors were known to exist. These errors were corrected and the counts re-issued in January 2004.

To order the postcode headcounts click HERE.

Viewable boundaries
Ward and Output Area boundaries are viewable on topographical base maps in Neighbourhood Statistics.

To view Output Area and Ward boundaries:

1. click the Interactive map image towards the bottom of the Neighbourhood Statistics home page, which will open a new window
2. click the 'Change' button on the right hand side, which will display a number of hierarchies from which a region can be selected
3. click the radio button next to the hierarchy required, and click the 'Apply' button - this will load a map for the region selected
4. to magnify the map either select the 'Zoom In' button and repeatedly click on the map to display progressively larger scale views, or directly enter a postcode to zoom straight to a larger scale map
5. click the radio button for 'Output Areas' and Output Area boundaries and codes appear, together with ward boundaries. Printing the view will produce coverage of a slightly larger area

The largest scale viewable is 1:10,000 which shows many street names, although parts of an Output Area boundary, particularly in rural areas, may be off screen at the maximum zoom in.

There are no current plans to supply raster versions on CD or DVD, but a service to supply hard copies will be provided at the cost of reproducing the maps, including royalties to Ordnance Survey, from Census Customer Services.

Ward codes and names
A file in Excel format is available from Census Customer Services which provides ward names for use with output in CSV format which contain ward codes but not ward names.

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 must be accepted before use. These do not restrict use of the vector boundaries within an organisation or use jointly by organisations which have each already accepted the terms and conditions. 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 HERE.

This page last revised: 14 August 2006