2011 Rural Urban Classification - User Guide
Contents
1. 8 Can the Classification be used for planning applications No RUC is very unlikely to be useful for this purpose The Rural Urban Classification categorises a series of small area geographic units such as Output Areas Lower Layer Super Output Areas and Middle Layer Super Output Areas It is designed to identify the types of settlement in which residents of any such area typically live It is not suitable either for categorising land cover in those areas or the physical character of parcels of land on which planning consent might be sought 20 The Rural Urban Classification provides a consistent approach to categorising settlement form and population sparsity in England and Wales and deploys its particular nomenclature for that purpose Local authorities development plans frequently include policies applying to specific contexts within their jurisdiction which may or may not be explicitly delimited on a proposal map There is no reason why the definitions of terms referring to settlement type and context used in development should coincide with those used in RUC 9 Why have some locations become more rural A formerly urban Output Area will have been reclassified as rural for one of three reasons because of a shift in the balance of development that impinges on it because of a change in the precise way that built up areas have been defined by Ordnance Survey or exceptionally because of because of population decline The2. Certain Output Areas defined in 2001 have been split in response to significant growth or less commonly have been merged where population has fallen Across England and Wales 3 239 OAs defined in 2001 were split 1 8 of the total creating 9 784 new OAs 5 4 of the 2011 total Overall 1 115 OAs from 2001 were merged 0 6 of the total defining 512 merged units 0 3 of the 2012 total Look up tables relating the 2001 and 2011 units are 14 3 9 available http www ons gov uk ons guide method geography products census changes to output areas and super output areas 2001 to 2011 xls Major physical development over the inter censal decade implied reconfiguration of OAs and in some circumstances a change in RUC settlement class Given the incidence of residential development adaptive splitting of 2001 OAs tended to follow urban intensification generating more than 8 000 new OAs New urban OAs were carved out of OAs which had already been urban under RUC2001 with concentrations found in Greater London and near the cores of major provincial cities Hence more than four fifths of new OAs created through splitting involved no change in RUC settlement class 3 10 Far less frequently adaptive splitting of OAs implied change in RUC settlement class Rather 3 11 3 12 more than 500 new urban OAs under RUC2011 were created out of previously rural OAs Substantial groups of such OAs are associated with s
3. first reason accounts for the largest number of cases and may apply where an Output Area embraces both rural and urban settlement types but over time new development alters the mix Such circumstances occur where a geographically large Output Area includes a substantial scatter of dispersed settlement but also a small part of an urban area In 2001 the number of dwellings in the urban and rural components may have been closely balanced If in these circumstances the urban edge has remained unchanged while small amounts of new development have occurred across the rest of the Output Area then the balance may have shifted so that by 2011 the settlement included was predominately rural The second type of circumstance in which an Output Area previously regarded as urban may have become rural is very different and very infrequent The definition of larger physical settlements as discussed in para 2 9 of the RUC User Guide rests on settlement definitions provided by Ordnance Survey While in principle the approach taken to defining urban areas in 2001 and built up areas in 2011 were similar there were significant differences in implementation which in some circumstances prove critical In the most extreme cases a change in the assessment of a particular parcel of land made by Ordnance Survey can cause a disjunction between two physical settlements previously treated as contiguous The most marked example discussed in 3 22 of the RUC User Guide is found wh
4. physical settlements of various sizes The broader rural component of the local authority classification comprises residents of settlements considered rural under the Rural Urban Classification for Small Area Geographies and particular larger settlements with a population up to 30 000 considered to serve the role of market town to a rural hinterland 22
5. to recognize that reported change arises not only from physical change but from changes of view as discussed below Understanding Change Where OAs Have Not Been Re Configured Where Output Area boundaries remain unchanged changes in settlement class assignment or changes between sparse and less sparse categories may both occur The former types of change are relatively common but changes between sparse and less sparse categories are not The extent of change in the dwelling stock involved in major settlement expansion implies that a change in the configuration of Output Areas would be required see below In aggregate the scale of rural to urban change captured by the changed status of OAs on constant boundaries is smaller than that associated with the creation of new OAs Where OA boundaries are static a change in the morphological class may occur under one of four circumstances 1 physical development within that specific OA may have triggered a change in settlement type either between urban and rural domains or within the rural domain ii demographic or physical change within the settlement with which an OA is associated may have taken that settlement across the 10 000 population threshold triggering a move between urban and rural domains iii remote physical change ie at a point outside that OA between 2001 and 2011 may have implied amalgamation of the settlement with which it was associated in 2001 with another thereby crossing
6. whether RUC is likely to be appropriate for the user s particular purpose its fundamental basis must be understood within RUC rurality is simply a matter of settlement form rather than the economic function or the character or use of the land RUC takes no explicit account of economic function This may render it inappropriate for some purpose but it allows the economic functions of a rural domain defined simply on the basis of settlement form to be measured rather than presumed More critically in practice RUC takes no explicit account of any aspect of the land cover typical of a statistical unit other than settlement RUC is not intended for the classification of land or land parcels Statistical units are assigned to categories within the typology on the basis of the physical character of the settlements in which residents typically live but this may indicate little about land cover across that unit For the reasons elaborated below RUC is not well suited for example to applications intended to support the administration of agro environment schemes or to analyse their take up More generally to assess whether RUC is likely to be appropriate for a particular purpose it is also important to understand the implications of the nature of the units which it classifies OAs LSOAs MSOAs the manner in which physical settlements are individuated and their populations enumerated and the manner in which settlement type and popula
7. 01 and 2011 or because of change in the precise way that built up areas have been defined by Ordnance Survey ONS have created new Output Areas by sub division where development took place at a significant scale between 2001 and 2011 Where Output Area boundaries have not 18 themselves changed they may have been reassigned to the urban category in three types of circumstance which are distinguished by a flag within RUC2011 The first is where the balance of settlement types has changed due to new physical development This will occur for example where an urban settlement has expanded into an Output Area previously characterised by dispersed settlement or where the principal settlement component within the OA was part of a neighbouring village These cases respond to growth on a scale less than that which would demand creation of a new Output Area The second type of circumstance which occurs far more frequently is where a change of view by Ordnance Survey has brought pre existing settlement within the urban domain Both the 2001 and 2011 definitions depend upon detailed OS mapping of urban settlements in 2001 and built up areas in 2011 While both involve identifying the physical limits of settlements the detailed protocols used have changed significantly Moreover in many cases removal of small gaps between settlements may add a chain of settlements previously regarded as disjoint to the urban domain For this reason comparison
8. 8 3 5 Urban City and Town 15 724 45 3 Urban City and Town in a Sparse Setting 94 0 3 Rural Town and Fringe 3 189 9 2 Rural Town and Fringe in a Sparse Setting 197 0 6 Rural Village and Dispersed 2 490 1 2 Rural Village and Dispersed in a Sparse Setting 328 0 9 Table 1c Distribution of 2011 MSOAs between Categories RUC2011 MSOA Class Frequency o Urban Major Conurbation 2 399 33 3 Urban Minor Conurbation 249 3 5 Urban City and Town 3 206 44 5 Urban City and Town ina Sparse Setting 21 0 3 Rural Town and Fringe 645 9 0 Rural Town and Fringe in a Sparse Setting 29 0 4 Rural Village and Dispersed 566 7 9 Rural Village and Dispersed in a Sparse Setting 86 1 2 Figure 2 England amp Wales 2011 Census Output Areas RUC2011 Typology HEE Urban major conurbation Urban minor conurbation E Urban city and town Urban city and town in a sparse setting HE Rural town and fringe Ea Rural town and fringe in a sparse setting Rural village Rural village in a sparse setting Rural hamlets and isolated dwellings pam Rural hamlets or isolated dwellings in a sparse setting 2 1 2 2 2 3 2 4 2 5 Assessing Fitness for Varying Purposes RUC is designed to assist examination of social and economic variation with respect to the physical character of the settlements in which residents typically live and to population sparsity Its prime motivation is to assist exploration of the particularities of rural areas To assess
9. C2011 and 0 42 of OAs assigned to an urban category under RUC2001 appearing rural under RUC2011 Nevertheless it must be understood that in the majority of cases a transfer of an OA to the urban domain does not result from physical development On the basis of detailed assessment of change at hectare cell level as described in Bibby and Brindley 2013 the reasons for specific urban rural and rural urban changes between RUC2001 and RUC2011 are flagged within RUC2011 The overall breakdown of these changes is summarized in Table 2 Table 2 Reasons for Rural to Urban and Urban to Rural Change between RUC2001 and RUC2011 at OA Level Type Rural to Urban Urban to Rural Number Pct Number Pct Development i ii 398 1 07 563 0 39 Threshold iii 991 2 66 37 0 03 Change of View iv 2 331 6 25 0 0 00 Not Applicable No Change 33 602 90 03 143 486 99 58 Total 37 322 100 00 144 086 100 00 Note 1 See Box 1 Understanding Change Where OAs Have Been Re Configured Creation of new Output Areas by ONS since 2001 has responded primarily to population change Small numbers of OA boundaries have been adjusted to respect local authority boundary changes and for other reasons set out in ONS 2012 Changes to Output Areas and Super Output Areas in England and Wales 2001 to 2011 http www ons gov uk ons guide method geography products census report changes to output areas and super output areas in england and wales 2001 to 2011 pdf
10. Office fol X A SSS National Statistics Department Department for for Environment Communities and GI Llywodraeth Cymru Food amp Rural Affairs Local Government Welsh Government The 2011 Rural Urban Classification For Small Area Geographies A User Guide and Frequently Asked Questions v1 0 Published on 28 August 2013 Authors Peter Bibby Department of Town and Regional Planning University of Sheffield and Paul Brindley School of Computer Science University of Nottingham 5 Government Statistical Service Crown copyright 2013 You may re use this information not including logos free of charge in any format or medium under the terms of the Open Government Licence To view this licence visit www nationalarchives gov uk doc open government licence or write to the Information Policy Team The National Archives Kew London TW9 4DU or e mail psi nationalarchives gsi gov uk With thanks to the Steering Group Bill South ONS Stephen Hall Defra Monika Krzykawska Defra Justin Martin Defra Simon Roberts DCLG and Stuart Neil Welsh Government Contents o BR OW Pf The 2011 Rural Urban Classification for Small Area Geographies PT Se AS oiee E E E E ten euamucuses 4 Assessing Fitness for Varying PUrDOSES ceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneeeeeeeeeeees 9 Understanding Change Over Time aicciincicccccntenthascrumecedias biadiel dee dewpiceneuetaneds 12 BMS MS eee E e E E R 16 Frequ
11. associated with former mining or rural industrial activity or more recent forms such as retirement villages 4 What is meant by the phrase in a sparse setting The term sparse is used within RUC to describe broad settlement contexts where the number of households is particularly low This is done because population sparsity is seen as a potential problem for the delivery of services in rural areas The identification of sparse settings rests on estimation of the total number of dwellings within particular distances of a residential address The number of dwellings or households within 10km of a point might be thought of as a proxy for the economic mass of an area reflecting the scale of the workforce that might be assembled or the volume of consumer spending that might be drawn upon Output Areas where population sparsity might be a potential problem are identified on this basis of the number of dwellings within 10km 20km and 30km of all residential addresses within the OA A measure expressed as a dwelling density is constructed at each of the three scales OAs within the fifth percentile on each of these three measures are identified and where an OA falls within the fifth percentile at all three scales it is regarded as being in a sparse setting 5 Why has this Output Area been reclassified as urban An Output Area will have been reclassified as urban either in response to physical development between 20
12. e contexts 1 9 At the LSOA and MSOA scales however settlement form tends to be more homogeneous and so a narrower range of eight types is recognized Urban Major Conurbation Urban Minor Conurbation Urban City and Town Urban City and Town in a Sparse Setting Rural Town and Fringe Rural Town and Fringe in a Sparse Setting Rural Village and Dispersed Rural Village and Dispersed in a Sparse Setting 1 10 The distribution of statistical units across the categories of the typology at the three scales is shown in Tables la Ic Figure 1 RUC2011 Typology Output Area Level TT ina ina not sparse sparse not sparse sparse setting setting Town Town Vill METL Minor City City a aE a E amp town amp town amp fringe amp fringe Table la Distribution of 2011 Census Output Areas between Categories RUC2011 OA Class Frequency o Urban Major Conurbation 59 199 32 6 Urban Minor Conurbation 6 277 3 5 Urban City and Town 81 004 44 7 Urban City and Town in a Sparse Setting 490 0 3 Rural Town and Fringe 15 850 8 7 Rural Town and Fringe in a Sparse Setting 1 044 0 6 Rural Village 9 646 5 3 Rural Village in a Sparse Setting 1 042 0 6 Rural Hamlets and Isolated Dwellings 5 969 3 3 Rural Hamlets and Isolated Dwellings in a Sparse Setting 887 0 5 Table 1b Distribution of 2011 LSOAs between Categories RUC2011 LSOA Class Frequency o Urban Major Conurbation 11 523 33 2 Urban Minor Conurbation 1 20
13. ed under RUC to the category that appears to reflect the character of the settlement in which its residents live regardless the extent of open land In some cases this may be an urban category where the limits of a particular settlement impinge upon an essentially undeveloped tract of land From a landscape perspective this is perverse RUC however classifies settlements and is designed to support analysis of the characteristics of their inhabitants The extreme case of OA E00027390 can be used to illustrate how the effect of Output Area definition protocols and OS built up area protocols combine to generate effects of this type Most of the dwellings within this OA lie at the limits of the Pennine fringe settlement of Uppermill which is considered to form part of Manchester in virtue of OS protocols for defining built up areas It is because of the narrow gaps between settlements within a long chain that Uppermill is considered urban under these protocols In virtue of the protocols used to delimit Output Areas however the OA in which these particular dwellings lie extends across Saddleworth Moor The combination of protocols ensures that RUC treats the OA which might be a reasonable description of the typical setting of the dwellings but not of the unpopulated moorland Extreme cases of this form where OAs have been perversely assigned to the urban domain can be readily identified on the basis of their areal extent 3 What is the differ
14. ence between a hamlet and a village 17 Hamlets are defined within RUC by reference to a group of farmsteads villages are identified as a cluster of dwellings with a specific density profile RUC follows the convention used within historical geography of regarding a cluster of three to eight farmsteads as a hamlet see for example Roberts 1996 In constructing the Rural Urban definition hamlets have been identified on the basis of the names of properties to which Royal Mail deliver letters see Bibby and Brindley 2013 Additional properties may augment such a cluster Hamlets in this sense form an important part of the inherited settlement pattern in some localities but absent across much of England Villages by contrast have a clear core and are defined on the basis of a distinctive density profile as discussed in para 2 11 of the RUC User Guide or more fully in Bibby and Brindley 2013 Occasionally a cluster of farms which would qualify as a hamlet may form part of a group of dwellings sufficiently substantial to satisfy the density profile rules to be regarded as a village and these are treated as villages for the purpose of the definition It should be noted that some small clusters of properties are classified neither as hamlets or villages These include traditional rural settlement forms such as isolated farmsteads with or without additional dwellings other isolated dwellings and small groups of dwellings such as single terraces
15. ently Asked Questions c ccceeeeecceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaeeeeeeeeeeees 17 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 The 2011 Rural Urban Classification For Small Area Geographies A User Guide The Rural Urban Classification categorises a range of statistical and administrative units on the basis of physical settlement and related characteristics This document is concerned with that part of the classification which categorises certain small statistical units in accordance with a two dimensional typology based on settlement form and settlement context This is referred to as the Rural Urban Classification for small area geographies or RUC for short and is concerned with Output Areas OAs the smallest areas for which data are available from the 2001 and 2011 Censuses together with agglomerations of OAs referred to as Super Output Areas SOAs defined at two geographic levels Lower Layer Super Output Areas LSOAs and Middle Layer Super Output Areas MSOAs That part of the classification concerned with higher level geographies is not discussed here This document outlines the content of RUC and its spatial and temporal scope guidance on assessing its appropriateness for different purposes and e guidance on issues arising in using RUC to examine change over time In its original form RUC was developed for a consortium of government agencies for use with the 2001 Census and revised following the 2011 Census for a s
16. ere the changed view of a particular land parcel severs Coleshill in Warwickshire from the West Midlands conurbation so that in 2011 it appears as a rural town rather than an urban area In this case the entire group of OAs covering Coleshill is reclassified A similarly striking case is found at Capenhurst in South Wirral where a changed view of a single land parcel severs a village and an industrial area from Ellesmere Port once again invoking a change from the urban to rural divisions A change of view of a related type also leads to the Ordnance Survey severance of North Walney from the built up area of Barrow in Furness and hence the assignment of North Walney to the rural domain The third type of circumstance in which an OA may pass from the urban to the rural domain is found where the population of an entire freestanding settlement fell below the 10 000 population threshold over the inter censal decade Under these circumstances all the OAs 21 which cover a settlement area re categorised from urban to town There were two settlements where this occurred Ferryhill and Shildon both in County Durham 10 How is this information used to show how rural a local authority is The Rural Urban Classification for Small Area Geographies is complemented by a classification of larger units Defra has produced and revised a local authority classification which relies on the proportion of a local authority s population living in
17. ferent radii or scales will differ ie they will be scale dependent The pattern of scale dependent densities differs systematically for different settlement types On this basis each cell is assigned to a morphological type using a method described by Bibby and Brindley 2013 The different categories of settlement are thus identified on the basis of form not on the basis of population cut offs The sizes of individual rural settlements associated with RUC2001 were catalogued by the Housing Corporation on the basis of the RUC hectare grid and ONS postcode head counts from the 2001 Census Reference to density profiles that is density measures at a range of geographic scales is crucial to the recognition of settlements of characteristically different form and extent Those intending to make sustained use of RUC may find value in gaining a thorough understanding of this aspect of the underlying methodology All users should be aware that the method does not simply assume that different types of settlement have been developed at different densities The principle underlying the method is entirely compatible with observations of the type that a cul de sac comprising 12 dwellings developed at 18 dwellings to the hectare might be found in a village or a town or the urban area or at the urban fringe The method simply exploits the scale dependence of density estimates Sparsity is also estimated using hectare grids Within RUC less than one OA in
18. her contexts but only hold across relatively small areas The force of the distinction is that developed and undeveloped parcels maybe intermingled within villages Areas classified as villages may include dwellings on typically suburban layouts but undeveloped land will always be close at hand Towns have a core including plots which are fairly densely developed The recognition of a town within RUC effectively depends on shape Ribbon development in its strict sense stretching for several kilometres 19 along a route will only satisfy the rules identifying town where it is complemented by additional housing nearby The design of Output Areas is such that those assigned to the town class are likely to comprise dwellings almost entirely within a town whereas those categorised as village are likely to include a mix of property in the villages and dwellings in other types of settlement but with the village type predominating Although the distinction between a village and a town is not based on the population size or the number of dwellings typical sizes of settlements satisfying the rules are provided in Bibby and Brindley 2013 Rather more than 1300 OAs assigned to the village category under in 2001 were assigned to the town and fringe category in 2011 This usually occurred where a town or city s fringe expanded into an OA previously assigned to the village class Rarely did it result from organic growth of a village W
19. here reassignment did arise from organic growth of a single settlement a group of contiguous OAs will have been affected Examples of such localities include Baschurch Shropshire Chorton Down Dorset Easton South Norfolk Hellifield North Yorkshire and Sutton Lane Ends Cheshire East 7 How do I use the classification to generate statistics To generate statistics using RUC the categorical flags assigned to particular Output Areas and larger geographic units must be joined to substantive statistical data files from the decennial Census or other sources RUC provides a series of categorical flags which describe the character of particular geographic units used for statistical purposes The attributes flagged are morphology and sparsity as discussed in paras 1 5 1 6 of the RUC User Guide together with indicators of change in category since 2001 and the reason for the changes The geographic units for which the flags are available are OAs Lower Layer Super Output Areas LSOAs Middle Layer Super Output Areas MSOAs and wards These flags should either be used in tandem with statistical data readily available for these geographic units or with other data aggregated to these scales The 2011 Census represents the largest body of readily available data at Output Area level A range of other data available at the OA LSOA and MSOA scales can be found on the Neighbourhood Statistics website http neighbourhood statistics gov uk
20. ignificant urban extensions of Swindon Peterborough Milton Keynes and Rugby for example Overall just over 5 of all new OAs created by splitting form part of the urban domain in 2011 but derive from a rural parent This component or rural to urban change thus exceeds the number of OAs on unchanged boundaries which passed from the rural to urban divisions as a direct result of physical development see Table 2 It should not however be assumed that a change in settlement classification will occur wherever OAs treated as rural under RUC2001 were split Most new OAs created by splitting rural units remained in the rural domain In total 512 OAs considered rural under RUC2001 were split creating 1 587 new OAs of which 1039 remained in the rural division Moreover roughly two thirds of this subset of new OAs belonged to the same morphological class as their parent These include cases in which settlement growth led to the splitting of a 2001 Output Area to create new OAs only some of which belong to a different morphological category to their parent eg with urban expansion 09UGDF0001 a village OA in 2001 was split to form E00173761 abutting Bedford becoming town and fringe in 2011 and E00173762 impinging on Biddenham and remaining in the village class or new OAs each of which remained within the same morphological class as its parent associated with modest growth at town level at v
21. illage level and very rarely in areas of dispersed settlement Merging of Output Areas where populations or household stocks fall below specific thresholds occurs far less frequently than splitting and is rarely associated with a change in RUC morphological assignment Some 95 of OAs lost through splitting had been assigned under RUC2001 to the same morphological class as their child within RUC2011 The majority of OAs lost through merging had been and remain within the urban domain Change tends to highlight areas cleared such as west Newcastle Skelmersdale and Teesside and might perhaps be better thought of as tracking a particular point in the development cycle rather than change in settlement structure 15 References Bibby PR Brindley PG 2013 Urban and Rural Area Definitions for Policy Purposes in England and Wales Methodology DCLG 2006 Urban and Rural Area Definitions a User Guide London Department of Communities and Local Government Available at https www gov uk government uploads system uploads attachment_data file 142430 urbanr ural user guide pdf Last Accessed 5 y uly 2013 Roberts B K 1996 Landscapes of Settlement Prehistory to the Present New York Routledge 16 Frequently Asked Questions 1 Why is 10 000 population the determination of whether somewhere is rural or urban This allows for consistency over time and with other constituent countries of the UK Since 1981 a minimum pop
22. imilar consortium including the Department of Communities and Local Government DCLG the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs Defra the Office of National Statistics ONS and the Welsh Government WG The two versions of the classification distinguished as RUC2001 and RUC2011 where necessary employ the same underlying methodology and hence are broadly comparable Differences in detail underlie changed assignments in some areas however whose extent and implications are discussed in Section 3 RUC in itself includes no statistical data but provides categorical attributes for the members of these specific sets of statistical units A very large range of statistical data items is readily available at OA level from the population censuses of 2001 and 2011 A much wider range of data is available at LSOA and MSOA level examples of which can be found on the Neighbourhood Statistics website http neighbourhood statistics gov uk Following principles set out in a review of urban and rural definitions see DCLG 2006 the urban domain comprises all physical settlements with a population of 10 000 or more If the majority of the population of a particular OA live in such a settlement that OA is deemed urban all other OAs are deemed rural Assignments of LSOAs and MSOAs to urban or rural categories are made by reference to the category to which the majority of their constituent OAs are assigned The implications of these p
23. nce of view of gaps between physical properties between 2001 and 2011 lead to changes in settlement individuation involving rural to urban change where undeveloped land was considered to form a gap between settlement in 2001 but not in 2011 Such cases are common in and around northern conurbations eg E00030644 E00030644 E00030645 were treated as a part of the Manchester built up area in 2011 but as a separate settlement Broadbottom in 2001 without any physical development at the gap which in 2001 was considered to separate it less frequently urban to rural change where undeveloped land was considered to form a gap between settlement in 2011 but not in 2011 eg OA E001050983 very near Bishop Auckland County Durham urban to rural change where a gap between settlement results from a change of view of whether a particular topographic feature should be treated as urban or rural eg a difference of view of an area of plant at Capenhurst E00092611 triggers its severance and a change in morphological assignment from urban to dispersed 3 5 3 6 3 7 3 8 Examples of each of these types of circumstance are provided in Box 1 The first three types all involve physical or demographic change but differ in how far that change may be from that specific OA Change of assignments between urban and rural divisions are relatively infrequent with 10 of OAs assigned to a rural category in RUC2001 being assigned to the urban domain under RU
24. of areas considered urban in the 2001 and 2011 definitions cannot be used to gauge the extent of physical urbanisation in the inter censal decade The third circumstance in which a statistical unit passes from the rural to the urban domain is where the whole settlement upon which it impinges crosses the 10 000 population threshold Here a whole group of statistical units will pass from the rural to the urban domain without the necessity of physical development in any particular one Apparent change in the classification of statistical units may also result from boundary changes More than 97 of OAs from 2001 persist with new identifiers but unchanged boundaries The remainder have either been merged to form new ones or more frequently split in response to population growth see RUC User Guide Section 3 6 When does a village become a town The distinction between a village and a town is based on settlement form rather than population size the economic function or historic role Very few settlements changed from being in the village class to the town class between 2001 and 2011 The density profile rules in Bibby and Brindley 2013 imply that where a dwelling forms part of a town there must be at least 500 other dwellings within 800 metres Where property forms part of a village there need only be another 35 dwellings within 800 metres although there are likely to be far more Of course both these conditions could be found in ot
25. rotocols depend on how physical settlements are individuated See section 2 1 6 Within RUC2011 Output Areas are assigned to one of four urban or six rural categories Urban Major Conurbation Al Urban Minor Conurbation B1 Urban City and Town C1 Urban City and Town in a Sparse Setting C2 Rural Town and Fringe D1 Rural Town and Fringe in a Sparse Setting D2 Rural Village El Rural Village in a Sparse Setting E2 Rural Hamlets and Isolated Dwellings F1 Rural Hamlets and Isolated Dwellings in a Sparse Setting F2 1 7 For analytical purposes it is useful to appreciate that this set of ten types arises from a cross classification of two categorical variables concerned respectively with settlement form and settlement context characterised by distinguishing two crude levels of population sparsity Urban Rural Major Minor City and Town and Village Hamlets Conurbation Conurbation Town Fringe amp Isolated Dwellings Sparse No Al B1 Cl D1 El F1 Yes z C2 D2 E2 F2 1 8 The typology constructed by bringing distinctions of form and context together at the OA level is illustrated in Figure 1 and mapped as Figure 2 RUC2011 provides a finer subdivision of the urban domain than its predecessor introducing the two conurbation types These groups are easily re aggregated if compatibility with RUC2001 is required Given the definitions used conurbations are not found in spars
26. rule 10 2 10 2 11 2 12 2 13 Once such areas are identified by OS they are assigned names Several areas represented by disjoint polygons within the OS built up areas dataset may have been assigned the same name ie treated as the same individuated settlement if they are considered to be sufficiently close together There is a tendency for fewer larger settlements to be individuated on the basis of 2011 built up area boundaries than 2001 urban settlement boundaries This results principally from differences in the way that protocols were applied when the two sets of settlement boundaries were produced This presents significant problems for applications concerned with variations of rates of growth of different sets of settlements It is also acknowledged that for many purposes users might wish to identify distinct settlements within urban agglomerations treated as single settlements under the rules used to create the 2011 built up areas The Manner in which Settlement Type and Population Sparsity Are Defined To classify settlement form within the rural domain RUC assigns each individual dwelling in England and Wales to a grid of rectangular cells each 100metres by 100metres As each cell covers an area of one hectare 10 000 sq metres they are referred to as hectare cells Density measures for each cell are calculated at a series of increasing radii around it to construct a density profile for it The density estimates for dif
27. the 10 000 population threshold and shifting the OA from the rural to the urban domain Less commonly remote physical change entailed severance of settlements and a shift of one or more OAs from the urban to the rural domain iv changes may result from change of view as a result of the rules used to create the 2011 built up areas rather than physical change 12 BOX 1 Circumstances Where Morphological Class of OAs Change Without Boundary Change i Change in Output Area Assignment due to Physical Development within the same OA Physical development within an OA insufficient to require its splitting can trigger its movement from the rural to the urban domain eg residential development at the fringe of Tiverton triggered changed assignment of E0010667 alter the balance between rural settlement types prompting a shift from dispersed to village categories or vice versa As such change tends to reflect a shift in balance between settlement types which impinge on the OA an assignment from village to dispersed is not perverse lead to a shift in morphological class in response to organic growth of the principal settlement though this is less common than shifts in balance Such cases tend to involve a group of contiguous OAs eg Baschurch Shropshire Chorton Down Dorset Easton South Norfolk Hellifield North Yorkshire and Sutton Lane Ends Cheshire East ti Change in Output Area Assignment due to Physical Development wi
28. thin a Remote OA A change in OA assignment may result from remote physical change involving rural to urban change when it contributes to apparent coalescence of settlements treated as separate in 2001 but as a single settlement above the 10 000 population threshold in 2011 eg all OAs E001649 E001658 E001659 E001660 in Box Wiltshire are now treated as part of neighbouring Corsham rarely urban to rural change when demolition of property or cessation of urban uses can trigger severs areas previously considered to form a single urban area The most marked case involves change on asite alongside A446 in OA E00158260 to the North of Coleshill severing Birmingham from Coleshill and triggering the transfer of that town s 21 OAs from the urban to the rural domain iii Change in Output Area Assignment where an Entire Settlement Crosses the 10 000 Population Threshold A change in assignment of a contiguous group of OAs occurs when an entire settlement crossed the 10 000 population threshold between 2001 and 2011 involving rural to urban change in a limited number of settlements including St Blazey in Cornwall Gillingham in North Dorset Amesbury in Wiltshire Cambourne in Cambridgeshire and Snodland in Kent urban to rural change with population decline in Ferryhill and Shildon both in County Durham iv Change in Output Area Assignment Arising from Change of View Between OS Protocols A change in assignment of an OA may occur where differe
29. though the shape of individual pieces bears little relation to the topography depicted As a consequence an Output Area may include a large tract of unsettled moor but overlap the edge of an urban area Under these circumstances the residents of the OA will typically live in the urban portion and it will be classified accordingly From a landscape perspective this seems perverse RUC however classifies settlements and is designed to support analysis of population and economic activity These considerations have two important implications for the potential user of RUC The first is the precept already stated that RUC is unlikely to be appropriate on its own for use in applications concerned with land cover The second is that outside urban areas with a population of 10 000 or more an Output Area is likely to include a mixture of settlement types and the definition is concerned with the balance between these types An Output Area assigned to the village class will not correspond to a village the design of OAs is such that it will include part of a village sometimes parts of more than one and other dwellings away from it The classification of many Output Areas changed between 2001 and 2011 because incremental development changed the balance of settlement types included see para 3 16 Implications of the Methods Used to Individuate Settlements Drawing a distinction between the urban and rural domains rests on the application of a 10 000 popula
30. tion cut to physical settlements and hence depends critically on the delimitation of their extent Delimitation demands specific rules to identity when gaps between parcels of developed land should signal breaks between settlements The number of settlements identified and their sizes are interdependent the more settlements are individuated the smaller they will be Understanding how physical settlements are defined is therefore crucial to the use of the definition RUC uses physical settlement boundaries created by Ordnance Survey OS to identify the areas to be considered urban More specifically RUC2001 uses 2001 urban settlement boundaries while RUC2011 uses built up area boundaries for 2011 The latter were created by OS on behalf of the government consortium to underpin 2011 Census outputs The detailed protocols differ and these differences are very important for understanding variation over time In principle however both involve aggregation of individual land parcels deemed to be in urban use subject to a distance cut off followed by settlement naming and population assignment RUC2013 rests on the delimitation of built up areas generated algorithmically from map data layers held by OS Parcels of developed land are identified and where the gap between two parcels is less than 200m they are amalgamated Individual built up areas are thus augmented to the point at which no further developed land can be added without infringing the cut off
31. tion sparsity are defined Implications of the Scale and Configuration of Statistical Units The assignments made within RUC cannot be understood without some consideration of the geographic scale and configuration of the units that are being classified Census Output Areas provide an exhaustive coverage of England and Wales and are designed algorithmically so that each includes a roughly equal number of households One implication of this given the distribution of population is that most OAs cover a small part of an urban area A further implication is that their geographic extent varies very widely and in thinly settled localities OAs will be geographically large tracts of land with scant physical development Intuitively one might imagine that units of that size might be characterised by dispersed settlement but the specific configuration of OAs means that this need not be the case Absence of residential land cover can be directly inferred from the geographic size of a particular Output Area but the nature of the land cover or the distribution of the dwelling stock across the area cannot 2 6 2 7 2 8 2 9 The design of Output Areas does not ensure that their boundaries are consonant with underlying topographic distinctions Although most OAs fall entirely within urban areas across the remainder of England and Wales the mosaic of Output Areas might be likened to a jigsaw puzzle which can be put together to provide a topographic map al
32. twenty is flagged as sparse all others being described as less sparse Identification of sparse OAs rests on three distinct measures of the average number of residential addresses respectively within 10km 20km and 30km of dwellings within the OA These three measures are calculated for every OA in England and Wales If an OA is flagged as sparse its score on each of these three measures falls within the lowest 5 see Bibby and Brindley 2013 11 3 1 3 2 3 3 3 4 Understanding Change over Time Great care is required in using RUC to examine change in settlement form between 2001 and 2011 Users should be aware that ONS replaced the hierarchical system of OA and SOA codes introduced for use with the 2001 Census More significantly ONS have made adjustments to their configuration which affect 2 6 of 2001 Census OAs Analysis of physical urbanization and similar topics requires adoption of reporting units that are themselves constant over time and must take account of two components of change in RUC assignments first that resulting from change in the set of S OAs in use and second that involving change in the categories assigned to S OAs with constant boundaries When interpreting change in settlement class assignments over time it is critically important to distinguish change in the classification of an Output Area on which more than one distinct settlement may impinge from organic growth of an entire settlement and e
33. ulation threshold of 10 000 has been used in England and Wales to distinguish physical settlements rather than administrative areas to be considered urban Although a wide number of cut offs have been used by different government agencies for specific purposes a review of urban and rural definitions undertaken for a consortium of government agencies in 2001 recommended the use of the 10 000 threshold The same threshold is used in Scotland and Northern Ireland ensuring compatibility of definitions both over time and between countries 2 Why are some locations that are clearly in the countryside regarded as part of urban areas This happens within RUC because of the precise configuration of particular statistical units Output Areas and of particular built up areas RUC classifies statistical units OAs LSOAs MSOAs on the basis of the type of settlement in which their residents typically live It takes account only of settlement without considering any other aspect of land use or land cover Output Areas provide an exhaustive coverage of England and Wales As they are designed so that each includes a roughly equal number of households many Output Areas will embrace large areas of undeveloped land Whether settlement included in such units is thinly dispersed across the OA or not unusually concentrated at its edge depends principally on the algorithm used to generate Output Area boundaries Such an Output Area will in every case be assign
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