Boundaries for all Output Areas in England and Wales in MID/MIF and Shapefile formats
This product contains the complete set of vector (re-usable) boundaries for the 175,434 Output Areas in England and Wales. It allow users to set up the boundaries in their own Geographical Information Systems.
This single DVD contains the boundaries in both file formats (see Boundary formats below) and resolutions. A series of four CDs is also available containing parts of the full set from this DVD. Full descriptions of the content of each of these CDs is available using the links in the related products box to the right.
The DVD also includes 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.
Boundary formats
The boundaries are available in two file formats - Shape format and MID/MIF format, each of which is available in either a high or low resolution version. There are high and low resolution files in each format containing all Output Areas in England and Wales in a single file. Additionally there are high resolution versions in each format containing separate files with all Output Areas in each single local authority.
Release date: January 2004
Media, availability and cost:
A DVD available on request free from ONS Geography using the ordering information box to the top right of this page.
Product notes
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.
Supporting information
The following information supporting this Census product is available:
Census News
