Rural/Urban Definition

The Rural/Urban Definition was introduced in 2004 as a joint project between a number of Government Departments and was delivered by the Rural Evidence Research Centre at Birkbeck College (RERC).

Output Areas (OAs)

The Definition adopts a settlement-based approach, comprising four settlement types, of which three are rural:

• Urban (population over 10,000)
• Town and Fringe
• Village
• Hamlet and Isolated Dwellings

The settlement types are assigned to either a 'sparse' or 'less sparse' regional setting to give 8 classes:

• Urban (Sparse)
• Town and Fringe (Sparse)
• Village (Sparse)
• Hamlet and Isolated Dwellings (Sparse)
• Urban (Less Sparse)
• Town and Fringe (Less Sparse)
• Village (Less Sparse)
• Hamlet and Isolated Dwellings (Less Sparse)

Super Output Areas (SOAs) and wards

For SOAs and wards, two of the rural settlement types used at OA level are merged to give three settlement types:

• Urban (population over 10,000)
• Town and Fringe
• Village, Hamlet and Isolated Dwellings

Again, these are assigned to either a 'sparse' or 'less sparse' regional setting to give six classes:

• Urban (Sparse)
• Town and Fringe (Sparse)
• Village, Hamlet and Isolated Dwellings (Sparse)
• Urban (Less Sparse)
• Town and Fringe (Less Sparse)
• Village, Hamlet and Isolated Dwellings (Less Sparse)

Product Details

The Rural/Urban Definition is available for England and Wales for the following geographies:

• Output Area (OA)
• Lower Super Output Area (LSOA)
• Middle Super Output Area (MSOA)
• Census Area Statistics (CAS) Ward
• 2003 Statistical Ward

For more information on the geographies see the Beginner's Guide to UK Geography - see Links.

Files (CSV format), metadata and guidance (PDF format) can be downloaded free of charge - see Downloads. In addition, an Introductory Guide and Methodology Report are available from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) website - see Links.

Downloads

Rural and Urban Area Definition for Output Areas (805Kb zip)
Rural and Urban Area Definition for Lower Layer Super Output Areas (2.5Mb zip)
Rural and Urban Area Definition for Middle Layer Super Output Areas (57Kb zip)
Rural and Urban Area Definition for 2003 Statistical wards (633Kb zip)
Rural and Urban Area Definition for Census Area Statistics (CAS) wards (632Kb zip)
Rural and Urban Area Definition metadata (98Kb pdf)
Rural and Urban Statistics Guidance Notes (53Kb pdf)

Links

Beginner's Guide to UK Geography
DEFRA: Rural and countryside statistics
Scottish Government
Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)

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This page last revised: Thursday, 17 September 2009