Rural and Urban Area Classification 2004

Background
Rural and Urban Definitions Project
Validation
Correction to the Rural and Urban Classification - March 2005
Products

Note: the Rural and Urban Area Classification 2004 covers England and Wales only. For information on Scotland and Northern Ireland refer to the Scottish Executive and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) websites.

Background

Choosing a suitable urban and rural definition is complicated by the number of different definitions in use - no single classification meets the needs of all users. The definitions previously used were conflicting as they were based on different approaches. This prompted research into how to harmonise urban and rural definitions.

In 2002 the Review of Urban and Rural Definitions was concluded by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). A number of products including a Project Report were produced presenting the main definitions used within government departments.

The work carried out was useful in clarifying the definitions available but it also made clear that the current definitions were not a suitable long-term solution as they were based on various different criteria.

Rural and Urban Definitions Project

A new joint project was therefore set up to produce a harmonised classification of both urban and rural areas for England and Wales. The Office for National Statistics (ONS), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), DCLG, the Countryside Agency (CA) and National Assembly for Wales (NAW) sponsored the project.

The new work builds upon the findings of the earlier study. Urban areas are defined by DCLG as settlements with a population of 10,000 or more (the 2001 Census Key Statistics Reports for Urban Areas for Urban Areas present results for all settlements with 10,000 or more residents, as well as for those with fewer residents).

Under the new classification, Output Areas are described as urban or rural depending on whether the majority of the population falls inside a settlement of population 10,000 or more. Due to the demand for a better definition of rural settlements, the main focus of the project has been the development of more detailed classifications for rural areas.

The overall classification is based on a settlement approach and builds upon the identification of rural towns, villages and scattered dwellings within a grid framework of cell size 1 hectare (100x100 metre squares). This ‘settlement framework grid’ is then used as the basis for the classification of Output Areas and 2003 Statistical wards in terms of settlement context and settlement form.

Also provided below are rural/urban classifications for Census Area Statistics wards (CAS wards) and for the lower and middle layers of Super Output Areas (SOAs) - the new geography used for Neighbourhood Statistics.

Validation

An online validation exercise was conducted during April/May 2004. This allowed data users and providers to examine and comment on the preliminary findings of the new rural and urban classification. Overall around 800 people registered and approximately 100 people responded with feedback. The majority of respondents welcomed the initiative and were very supportive of the methodology and the classification. A Validation Report (89Kb pdf) summarises the feedback from the validation exercise and outlines areas for further development.

Correction to the Rural and Urban Classification - March 2005

A minor error in the Output Area (OA) level classification and a more significant error in the statistical ward level classification have recently been identified by DEFRA.

A total of 25 OAs were allocated to the wrong class in the Output Area (OA) level classification. The discrepancy results from coding errors in the original set of OA boundaries, released by ONS in support of Census 2001 and used early-on in creation of the classification.

The impact of this error on most users is likely to be very minor as the 25 OAs affected represents only 0.014 % of the 175,434 OAs in England and Wales. Critically no OA has moved between urban and rural, or vice versa, in the corrected set. The identified coding errors in the OA boundaries have now been fixed and corrections made to NS products. The OA error caused a misclassification of 3 wards.

A more significant error, however, has been identified in the ward level classification. This error, the result of an inconsistency in the way the agreed methodology was applied, has affected a total of 186 (around 2%) of the wards in England and Wales.

Correcting this error has moved 43 wards from urban to rural classes and 4 wards from rural to urban classes.

Since it impacts only a small part of the country this error is likely to have a minor impact for most users.

Both the OA and Ward level errors are corrected in the classification files provided below.

The metadata and methodology guides provided have been corrected to take account of the minor changes in the classification. A list of the OAs and Wards affected by these errors is also provided for reference.

Users of the previous release of the classification are recommended to use the files below to identify whether these errors will have affected their work. Changes have been made to the Quality Assurance process for external work of this type in the future.

Please contact us if you need further information.

Products

An Introductory Guide (122Kb pdf) has been produced to help users understand the classification and its implications for producing and analysing statistics. The guide outlines some important features of the classification which users may wish to consider, including its limitations. It also attempts to answer some of the obvious questions users may raise.

The Methodology Report (454Kb pdf) provides more technical information on how the new classification was developed.

The following files contain the actual rural/urban classification:

Rural and Urban Area Classification of Output Areas (11.1Mb zip)
This contains ten files in .xls format, one for each of Wales and the nine English regions.

Rural and Urban Area Classification of Output Areas (805Kb zip)
This contains ten files in .csv format, one for each of Wales and the nine English regions.

Rural and Urban Area Classification of Output Areas (808Kb zip)
This contains a single file in .txt format, covering all of England and Wales.

Rural and Urban Area Classification of 2003 Statistical wards (633Kb zip)
This contains a single file in .xls format, covering all of England and Wales.

Rural and Urban Area Classification of 2003 Statistical wards (100Kb zip)
This contains a single file in .csv format, covering all of England and Wales.

Rural and Urban Area Classification of Census Area Statistics wards (632Kb zip)
This contains a single file in .xls format, covering all of England and Wales.

Rural and Urban Area Classification of Census Area Statistics wards (100Kb zip)
This contains a single file in .csv format, covering all of England and Wales.

Rural and Urban Area Classification of Lower Layer Super Output Areas (2.5Mb zip)
This contains a single file in .xls format, covering all of England and Wales.

Rural and Urban Area Classification of Lower Layer Super Output Areas (302Kb zip)
This contains a single file in .csv format, covering all of England and Wales.

Rural and Urban Area Classification of Middle Layer Super Output Areas (481Kb zip)
This contains a single file in .xls format, covering all of England and Wales.

Rural and Urban Area Classification of Middle Layer Super Output Areas (57Kb zip)
This contains a single file in .csv format, covering all of England and Wales.

Rural and Urban Area Classification metadata (98Kb pdf)

Corrections to the Output Area and 2003 Statistical ward classifications (March 2005) (15Kb zip)
This file contains details in .xls and .csv format of the areas affected by these corrections.

top

This page last revised: Wednesday, 16 May 2007