Rural

• What is rural?
• National Rural Reports and associated data
• East of England Rural Reports
• Rural Services Survey

What is rural?

The Rural Definition was introduced in 2004 as a joint project between the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC - formerly the Countryside Agency), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and the Welsh Assembly. It was delivered by the Rural Evidence Research Centre at Birkbeck College (RERC).

A) This new 'spectrum', or graded system, replaces the earlier Oxford/CA binary ward classification and adopts a settlement-based approach.

B) It is available for England and Wales at:

• Census Output Area (COA or OA)
• Census Super Output Area (CSOA or SOA)
• Ward
  
  [OAs consist of ~125 households and have a population of ~300. SOAs are built of OAs, typically 5, and so contain ~625 households or a mean population of ~1500. OAs therefore vary greatly in size and shape between urban and rural regions, for example a single tower block may consist of more than one OA, whereas a large area of remote moorland may be covered by a single OA.]
  More information on OAs and SOAs.

C) Output areas are classified by morphology and context:

• Morphology
  • Urban (over 10,000)
  • Rural town
  • Village
  • Dispersed (hamlets and isolated dwellings)
• And context
  • Sparse
  • Less sparse

  This gives 8 Urban/Rural Classification (1 urban and 6 rural):

  1. Urban (Sparse)
  2. Urban (Less Sparse)
  3. Town (Less Sparse)
  4. Town (Sparse)
  5. Village (Less Sparse)
  6. Village (Sparse)
  7. Dispersed (Less Sparse)
  8. Dispersed (Sparse)

The LA Classification (including the PCT Classification) - Summary

The LA and PCT Classification was introduced in 2005 as a Defra initiative and was delivered by the Rural Evidence Research Centre at Birkbeck College (RERC).

A) Many Statistics are only available at Local Authority level. In order to differentiate between Rural and Urban for these statistics it was necessary to classify the LAs based on their rurality. The same methodology was then applied to Primary Care Trusts (PCT).

B) The new LA Classification is again a 'spectrum', or graded system, and replaces the earlier Tarling binary LA classification, and again it is based on settlement type.

The new LA and PCT Classification gives 6 Urban/Rural Classifications:

1. Major Urban: districts with either 100,000 people or 50 percent of their population in urban areas with a population of more than 750,000.
2. Large Urban: districts with either 50,000 people or 50 percent of their population in one of 17 urban areas with a population between 250,000 and 750,000.
3. Other Urban: districts with fewer than 37,000 people or less than 26 percent of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns.
4. Significant Rural: districts with more than 37,000 people or more than 26 percent of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns.
5. Rural-50: districts with at least 50 percent but less than 80 percent of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns.
6. Rural-80: districts with at least 80 percent of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns.

National Rural Reports and associated data

East of England Rural Reports

Rural Services Survey