Dr Paul Brindley
Defining Rural and Urban boundaries
I have been involved in both the 2001 and 2011 official Rural-Urban Classification (undertaken for a consortium of bodies including Defra, ONS, DCLG and the Welsh Government). The Rural Urban Classification is an official statistic used to distinguish rural and urban areas. The classification defines areas as rural if they are outside settlements with more than 10,000 resident population. More details about the classification can be found at the following Defra website.
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The classification itself can be downloaded from the ONS GeoPortal found at the following location. Rural/Urban definitions are available for a plethora of spatial boundaries including: Output Areas, Lower Layer Super Output Areas, Medium Layer Super Output Areas, Wards and Local Authorities.
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Example output is illustrated below:
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The Rural Urban Classification Typology
The Rural Urban Classification for Output Areas
