Rural Urban ClassificationThe 2021 RUC is a statistical classification to provide a consistent and standardised method for classifying geographies as rural or urban. This is based on address density, physical settlement form, population size, and Relative Access to Major towns and cities (populations of over 75,000 people). The classification is produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) with advice from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Welsh Government and colleagues from the Government Geography Profession (GGP).This is the 2021 rural-urban classification (RUC) of the 2021 Local Authority Districts in England and Wales. This means that the 2021 RUC methodology has been applied to the 2021 LAD boundaries. LAD classifications are divided into four categories based on their populations:<!--1. Majority Rural: had at least 50% of their population residing in Rural OAs.<!--2. Intermediate Rural: 35-50% rural population<!--3. Intermediate Urban: 20-35% rural population<!--4. Urban: 20% or less of the population live in rural OAs.Each 2021 LAD category is split into one of two Relative Access categories, using the same data as the 2021 Output Area RUC. If more than 50% of a LAD population lives in ‘nearer to a major town or city’ OAs, it is deemed ‘nearer a major town or city’; otherwise, it is classified as ‘further from a major town or city.

Where data is unavailable for Super Output Area geographies, it may be appropriate for users to undertake analysis at the LAD level. At this level, the categorisation works slightly differently in that most areas will include a mix of both rural and urban areas - so the LAD RUC categorisation is a reflection of this. A statistical geography may contain substantial portions of open countryside but still be given an ‘Urban’ classification if the majority of the population within the area live in settlements that are urban in nature. Users should take this into consideration to ensure correct interpretations of any analysis of RUC LAD categories

This file provides a rural-urban view of 2001 Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOA) in England and Wales. The ZIP file contains the Rural Urban Classification in XLSX and CSV format and includes a user guide. The files were originally from the NeSS website. Click on the Download button to download the ZIP file.The classification of rural and urban areas is the outcome of a project co-sponsored by:Office for National Statistics (ONS);Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra);Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (now Communities and Local Government);Countryside Agency (CA); andNational Assembly for Wales (NAW).The classification was developed in 2004 by a consortium co-ordinated by Prof. John Shepherd from Birkbeck College. The technical work was lead by Peter Bibby of University of Sheffield and the project also involved the University of Glamorgan and Geowise. The rural and urban classification of Output Areas, Super Output Areas (this dataset) and Wards has been provided to enable datasets to be analysed according to the classification. This provides a powerful tool for the development and monitoring of rural and urban policies.Please Note: Super Output Areas do not have all the same codes as the OA level Dataset. For SOAs and Wards the classifications for ‘Villages, Hamlets and Isolated Dwellings’ have been combined.Similar procedures to those used to classify Output Areas apply to the classification for the 34,378 Lower Layer Super Output Areas in the dataset. However the morphological classification differs in the number of categories as very few LSOAs can be classified as predominantly dispersed settlements. LSOAs are categorised into just three domains: urban 10k, town and fringe and villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings, using the key below:2005 Rural and Urban morphology indicator1 - denotes predominantly urban >10k2 - denotes predominantly town and fringe3 - denotes other rural (including village, hamlet and isolated dwellings)2005 Rural and Urban context indicator0 - denotes less sparsely populated areas1 - denotes sparsely populated areas

A map which highlights the rurality of an area.

Rural Urban Classification of a County and population in that County that is a 'Major Urban', 'Large Urban', 'Other Urban', 'Large Market Town' 'Rural Town Population' 'Village' and Dispersed. Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS) Publisher: Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Geographies: County/Unitary Authority Geographic coverage: England Type of data: Administrative data

(File Size - 29 KB). The 2011 rural-urban classification (RUC) of clinical commissioning groups (CCG) in England is based on the 2011 RUC of output areas published in August 2013, and allows users to create a rural/urban view of clinical commissioning group level products. The classification was produced by the University of Sheffield and was sponsored by a cross-Government working group comprising Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department of the Communities and Local Government and Office for National Statistics. Also included are a range of population counts for each CCG including - Total Rural population (2011), Urban City and Town population (2011), Urban Minor Conurbation population (2011), Urban Major Conurbation population (2011), Total Urban population (2011), Total population (2011), Hub towns (rural related) population included in Urban population (2011), Rural including hub towns (rural & rural related) population (2011) and Rural including hub towns (rural & rural related) population as % of Total population (2011).

This file provides a rural-urban view of 2011 electoral wards / divisions. The 2011 rural-urban classification of electoral wards / divisions was released in August 2013. This product was sponsored by a cross-Government working group comprising Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department of the Communities and Local Government, Office for National Statistics and the Welsh Government. The classification at electoral wards / divisions level is built from the RUC at OA level (the most detailed version of the classification). Assignments of electoral wards / divisions to urban or rural categories are made by reference to the category to which the majority of their constituent OA are assigned. In the RUC at OA level, output areas are treated as ‘urban’ if they were allocated to a 2011 built-up area with a population of 10,000 or more. The urban domain is then further sub-divided into three broad morphological types based on the predominant settlement component. As with the previous version of the classification, the remaining ‘rural’ output areas are grouped into three broad morphological types based on the predominant settlement component. At the electoral wards / divisions scale settlement form is less homogeneous than at OA level and so there are just two rural settlement types. The classification also categorises output areas based on context – i.e. whether the wider surrounding area of a given output area is sparsely populated or less sparsely populated (File Size 429KB).REST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/Rural Urban Classification (2011) of Wards in England and Wales_new/FeatureServerREST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/Rural Urban Classification (2011) of Wards in England and Wales_new/FeatureServerREST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/Rural Urban Classification (2011) of Wards in England and Wales_new/FeatureServer

How people feel about their neighbourhood across the UK. This dataset shows how people feel about their neighbourhood by looking at 5 measures of social capital and shows differences observed between regions,constituent countries and urban and rural areas

A PDF map showing the Rural Urban Classification (2011) of the MSOAs in the South West Region. (File Size - 723 KB)

The document provides information for the 2011 Rural-Urban Classification For Small Area Geographies. For downloadable datasets please see the ONS Geography web pages (File Size - 315 KB)

This dataset has been clipped to Stirling Council's Planning Policy BoundaryThe Scottish Government (SG) Urban Rural Classification provides a consistent way of defining urban and rural areas across Scotland. The classification aids policy development and the understanding of issues facing urban, rural and remote communities. It is based upon two main criteria: (i) population as defined by National Records of Scotland (NRS), and (ii) accessibility based on drive time analysis to differentiate between accessible and remote areas in Scotland. The classification can be analysed in a two, three, six or eight fold form. The two-fold classification simply distinguishes between urban and rural areas through two categories, urban and rural, while the three-fold classification splits the rural category between accessible and remote. Most commonly used is the 6-fold classification which distinguishes between urban, rural, and remote areas through six categories. The 8-fold classification further distinguishes between remote and very remote regions. The Classification is normally updated on a biennial basis, with the current dataset reflective of the year 2022.

This file provides a rural-urban view of 2003 Census Area Statistics (CAS) Wards in England and Wales. The ZIP file contains the Rural Urban Classification in XLSX and CSV format and includes a user guide. The files were originally from the NeSS website. Click on the Download button to download the ZIP file.The classification of rural and urban areas is the outcome of a project co-sponsored by:Office for National Statistics (ONS);Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra);Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (now Communities and Local Government);Countryside Agency (CA); andNational Assembly for Wales (NAW).The classification was developed in 2004 by a consortium co-ordinated by Prof. John Shepherd from Birkbeck College. The technical work was lead by Peter Bibby of University of Sheffield and the project also involved the University of Glamorgan and Geowise. The rural and urban classification of Output Areas, Super Output Areas and Wards (this dataset) has been provided to enable datasets to be analysed according to the classification. This provides a powerful tool for the development and monitoring of rural and urban policies.Please Note: Wards do not have all the same classification codes as the OA level Dataset. For Wards and SOAs the classifications for ‘Villages, Hamlets and Isolated Dwellings’ has been combined.Similar procedures to those used to classify Output Areas apply to the classification for the 8,850 CAS Wards in England and Wales. However the morphological classification differs in the number of categories as very few wards can be classified as predominantly dispersed settlements. Wards are categorised into just three domains: urban 10k, town and fringe and villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings. See key below:2005 Rural and Urban morphology indicator1 - denotes predominantly urban >10k2 - denotes predominantly town and fringe3 - denotes other rural (including village, hamlet and isolated dwellings)2005 Rural and Urban context indicator0 - denotes less sparsely populated areas1 - denotes sparsely populated areas

The 2021 rural-urban classification (RUC) of Lower layer Super Output Areas in England and Wales. Lower layer Super Output Areas are assigned their RUC classification based on their Output Area (OA) settlement class (‘Urban’, ‘Larger rural’ and ‘Smaller rural’) and relative access category (‘nearer to a major town or city’ and ‘further from a major town or city’) of the majority population that are resident within them.

The 2021 RUC is a statistical classification to provide a consistent and standardised method for classifying geographies as rural or urban. This is based on address density, physical settlement form, population size, and Relative Access to Major towns and cities (populations of over 75,000 people). The classification is produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) with advice from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Welsh Government and colleagues from the Government Geography Profession (GGP).

This dataset is published as Open DataThe Scottish Government (SG) Urban Rural Classification provides a consistent way of defining urban and rural areas across Scotland. The classification aids policy development and the understanding of issues facing urban, rural and remote communities. It is based upon two main criteria: (i) population as defined by National Records of Scotland (NRS), and (ii) accessibility based on drive time analysis to differentiate between accessible and remote areas in Scotland. The classification can be analysed in a two, three, six or eight fold form. The two-fold classification simply distinguishes between urban and rural areas through two categories, urban and rural, while the three-fold classification splits the rural category between accessible and remote. Most commonly used is the 6-fold classification which distinguishes between urban, rural, and remote areas through six categories. The 8-fold classification further distinguishes between remote and very remote regions. The Classification is normally updated on a biennial basis, with the current dataset reflective of the year 2020. Data for previous versions are available for download in ESRI Shapefile format.

The Scottish Government (SG) Urban Rural Classification provides a consistent way of defining urban and rural areas across Scotland. The classification aids policy development and the understanding of issues facing urban, rural and remote communities. It is based upon two main criteria: (i) population as defined by National Records of Scotland (NRS), and (ii) accessibility based on drive time analysis to differentiate between accessible and remote areas in Scotland. The classification can be analysed in a two, three, six or eight fold form. The two-fold classification simply distinguishes between urban and rural areas through two categories, urban and rural, while the three-fold classification splits the rural category between accessible and remote. Most commonly used is the 6-fold classification which distinguishes between urban, rural, and remote areas through six categories. The 8-fold classification further distinguishes between remote and very remote regions. The Classification is normally updated on a biennial basis, with the current dataset reflective of Census Day 2022. Data for previous versions are available for download in ESRI Shapefile format.

A PDF map showing the Rural Urban Classification (2011) of the LSOAs in the East Midlands Region. (File Size - 2 MB)

This file provides a rural-urban view of 2001 Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOA) in England and Wales. The ZIP file contains the Rural Urban Classification in XLSX and CSV format and includes a user guide. The files were originally from the NeSS website. Click on the Download button to download the ZIP file.The classification of rural and urban areas is the outcome of a project co-sponsored by:Office for National Statistics (ONS);Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra);Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (now Communities and Local Government);Countryside Agency (CA); andNational Assembly for Wales (NAW).The classification was developed in 2004 by a consortium co-ordinated by Prof. John Shepherd from Birkbeck College. The technical work was lead by Peter Bibby of University of Sheffield and the project also involved the University of Glamorgan and Geowise. The rural and urban classification of Output Areas, Super Output Areas (this dataset) and Wards has been provided to enable datasets to be analysed according to the classification. This provides a powerful tool for the development and monitoring of rural and urban policies.Please Note: Super Output Areas do not have all the same codes as the OA level Dataset. For SOAs and Wards the classifications for ‘Villages, Hamlets and Isolated Dwellings’ have been combined.Similar procedures to those used to classify Output Areas apply to the classification to the 7,194 Middle Layer Super Output Areas in the dataset. However the morphological classification differs in the number of categories as very few MSOAs can be classified as predominantly dispersed settlements. MSOAs are categorised into just three domains: urban 10k, town and fringe and villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings, using the key below:2005 Rural and Urban morphology indicator1 - denotes predominantly urban >10k2 - denotes predominantly town and fringe3 - denotes other rural (including village, hamlet and isolated dwellings)2005 Rural and Urban context indicator0 - denotes less sparsely populated areas1 - denotes sparsely populated areas

Average weekly household expenditure on goods and services in the UK. Data are shown by region, age, income (including equivalised) group (deciles and quintiles), economic status, socio-economic class, housing tenure, output area classification, urban and rural areas (Great Britain only), place of purchase and household composition.

Local Authority Districts (December 2024) Boundaries EW BFE and Rural Urban classification data 2021.

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for Local Authority Districts, in England and Wales, as at December 2024.

It is joined to the Rural Urban Classification data 2021.

The Rural-Urban Classification is a Government Statistical Service product developed by the Office for National Statistics; the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; and the Welsh Assembly Government.

Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0.

Contains OS data © Crown copyright 2025

Links below to FAQ, Methodology and User Guide for Rural Urban classification

FAQ https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/documents/f359d48424664a1584dca319f3dac97f/about

Methodology https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/documents/833a35f2a1ec49d98466b679ae0a0646/about

User Guide https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/documents/c8e8e6db38e04cb8937569d74bce277a/about

The boundaries available are: (BFE) Full resolution - extent of the realm (usually this is the Mean Low Water mark but in some cases boundaries extend beyond this to include off shore islands).

Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

File size: 13MB