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 the year 2020. Data for previous versions are available for download in ESRI Shapefile format.The following processes were performed by Esri: The simplify polygon tool was run to reduce the number of vertices, fields were deleted and changed in the attribute table.
This file provides a rural-urban view of 2021 Output Areas (OA) in England and Wales. OAs are the base level of geography for the 2021 RUC, and the category assigned to each OA informs the classification for all higher-level geographies (LSOA, MSOA and LAD). 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).
OAs are defined as ‘Urban’ if they have a high density of residential addresses, or if they intersect with Amalgamated Built Up Areas (ABUAs) with a resident population of 10,000 or more. ABUAs are Built Up Areas (BUAs) within 200m of one another and with a direct road connection, representing larger conurbations. OAs that intersect with ABUAs with populations less than 10,000 or that have lower densities of addresses, are assigned to the two ‘Rural’ Categories (‘Larger Rural’ and ‘Smaller Rural’).
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The urban–rural continuum classifies the global population, allocating rural populations around differently-sized cities. The classification is based on four dimensions: population distribution, population density, urban center location, and travel time to urban centers, all of which can be mapped globally and consistently and then aggregated as administrative unit statistics.Using spatial data, we matched all rural locations to their urban center of reference based on the time needed to reach these urban centers. A hierarchy of urban centers by population size (largest to smallest) is used to determine which center is the point of “reference” for a given rural location: proximity to a larger center “dominates” over a smaller one in the same travel time category. This was done for 7 urban categories and then aggregated, for presentation purposes, into “large cities” (over 1 million people), “intermediate cities” (250,000 –1 million), and “small cities and towns” (20,000–250,000).Finally, to reflect the diversity of population density across the urban–rural continuum, we distinguished between high-density rural areas with over 1,500 inhabitants per km2 and lower density areas. Unlike traditional functional area approaches, our approach does not define urban catchment areas by using thresholds, such as proportion of people commuting; instead, these emerge endogenously from our urban hierarchy and by calculating the shortest travel time.Urban-Rural Catchment Areas (URCA).tif is a raster dataset of the 30 urban–rural continuum categories for the urban–rural continuum showing the catchment areas around cities and towns of different sizes. Each rural pixel is assigned to one defined travel time category: less than one hour, one to two hours, and two to three hours travel time to one of seven urban agglomeration sizes. The agglomerations range from large cities with i) populations greater than 5 million and ii) between 1 to 5 million; intermediate cities with iii) 500,000 to 1 million and iv) 250,000 to 500,000 inhabitants; small cities with populations v) between 100,000 and 250,000 and vi) between 50,000 and 100,000; and vii) towns of between 20,000 and 50,000 people. The remaining pixels that are more than 3 hours away from any urban agglomeration of at least 20,000 people are considered as either hinterland or dispersed towns being that they are not gravitating around any urban agglomeration. The raster also allows for visualizing a simplified continuum created by grouping the seven urban agglomerations into 4 categories.Urban-Rural Catchment Areas (URCA).tif is in GeoTIFF format, band interleaved with LZW compression, suitable for use in Geographic Information Systems and statistical packages. The data type is byte, with pixel values ranging from 1 to 30. The no data value is 128. It has a spatial resolution of 30 arc seconds, which is approximately 1km at the equator. The spatial reference system (projection) is EPSG:4326 - WGS84 - Geographic Coordinate System (lat/long). The geographic extent is 83.6N - 60S / 180E - 180W. The same tif file is also available as an ESRI ArcMap MapPackage Urban-Rural Catchment Areas.mpkFurther details are in the ReadMe_data_description.docx
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Urban Rural Classification (6-Fold)
This dataset classifies statistical areas (lower super output areas or LSOAs) in Cheshire East on either a two level classification - rural or urban - or a six level classification; rural, predominantly rural, more rural than urban, more urban than rural, predominantly urban and urban. A methodology document explains how the classifications were created. A map of the classifications is also available.Six variables are used to create the classification, four of these come from the census:1. Proportion (aged 16-74) of employment in agriculture 2. Average number of cars per household 3. Population density - people per hectare 4. Proportion (aged 16-74) self-employed of those economically active 5. Access to services – this includes road distances to; a GP surgery, a supermarket or convenience store, a primary school and distance to a Post Office6. Buildings as a proportion of all land useThe classification will be updated following the release of the 2021 Census in 2022-23.There are many definitions of areas within Cheshire East classifying them into varying degrees of rural or urban. Organisations such as the Countryside Agency, DEFRA, the Office for National Statistics and central government each produced their own classification. The indicators used and available geographies are different. Several local definitions also existed. To remedy this, a local classification was developed.
Accessible Tables and Improved Quality
As part of the Analysis Function Reproducible Analytical Pipeline Strategy, processes to create all National Travel Survey (NTS) statistics tables have been improved to follow the principles of Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP). This has resulted in improved efficiency and quality of NTS tables and therefore some historical estimates have seen very minor change, at least the fifth decimal place.
All NTS tables have also been redesigned in an accessible format where they can be used by as many people as possible, including people with an impaired vision, motor difficulties, cognitive impairments or learning disabilities and deafness or impaired hearing.
If you wish to provide feedback on these changes then please contact us.
Revision to NTS9919
On 16th April 2025, the figures in table NTS9919 have been revised and recalculated to include only day 1 of the travel diary where short walks of less than a mile are recorded (from 2017 onwards), whereas previous versions included all days. This is to more accurately capture the proportion of trips which include short walks before a surface rail stage. This revision has resulted in fewer available breakdowns than previously published due to the smaller sample sizes.
NTS9901: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce11024e046525fa39cf7f/nts9901.ods">Full car driving licence holders by sex, region and rural-urban classification of residence, aged 17 and over: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 33 KB)
NTS9902: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce11028e33f28aae7e1f79/nts9902.ods">Household car availability by region and rural-urban classification of residence: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 49.4 KB)
NTS9903: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce11021aaf41b21139cf7e/nts9903.ods">Average number of trips by main mode, region and rural-urban classification of residence (trips per person per year): England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 104 KB)
NTS9904: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce11024e046525fa39cf80/nts9904.ods">Average distance travelled by mode, region and rural-urban classification of residence (miles per person per year): England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 108 KB)
NTS9908: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce110225c035a11941f658/nts9908.ods">Trips to and from school by main mode, region and rural-urban classification of residence, aged 5 to 16: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 73.9 KB)
NTS9910: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce11024e046525fa39cf81/nts9910.ods">Average trip length by main mode, region and rural-urban classification of residence: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, <span class=
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Urban rural 2023 update
UR 2023 is the first major update of the geography since it was first created in 2018. The update is to ensure UR geographies are relevant and meet criteria before each five-yearly population and dwelling census. UR 2023 contains 13 new rural settlements and 7 new small urban areas. Updates were made to reflect real world change including new subdivisions and motorways, and to improve delineation of urban areas and rural settlements. The Wānaka urban area, whose population has grown to be more than 10,000 based on population estimates, has been reclassified to a medium urban area in the 2023 urban rural indicator.
In the 2023 classification there are:
This dataset is the definitive version of the annually released urban rural (UR) boundaries as at 1 January 2023 as defined by Stats NZ. This version contains 745 UR areas, including 195 urban areas and 402 rural settlements.
Urban rural (UR) is an output geography that classifies New Zealand into areas that share common urban or rural characteristics and is used to disseminate a broad range of Stats NZ’s social, demographic and economic statistics.
The UR separately identifies urban areas, rural settlements, other rural areas, and water areas. Urban areas and rural settlements are form-based geographies delineated by the inspection of aerial imagery, local government land designations on district plan maps, address registers, property title data, and any other available information. However, because the underlying meshblock pattern is used to define the geographies, boundaries may not align exactly with local government land designations or what can be seen in aerial images. Other rural areas, and bodies of water represent areas not included within an urban area.
Urban areas are built from the statistical area 2 (SA2) geography, while rural and water areas are built from the statistical area 1 (SA1) geography.
Non-digitised
The following 4 non-digitised UR areas have been aggregated from the 16 non-digitised meshblocks/SA2s.
6901; Oceanic outside region, 6902; Oceanic oil rigs, 6903; Islands outside region, 6904; Ross Dependency outside region.
UR numbering and naming
Each urban area and rural settlement is a single geographic entity with a name and a numeric code.
Other rural areas, inland water areas, and inlets are defined by territorial authority; oceanic areas are defined by regional council; and each have a name and a numeric code.
Urban rural codes have four digits. North Island locations start with a 1, South Island codes start with a 2, oceanic codes start with a 6 and non-digitised codes start with 69.
Urban rural indicator (IUR)
The accompanying urban rural indicator (IUR) classifies the urban, rural, and water areas by type. Urban areas are further classified by the size of their estimated resident population:
This was based on 2018 Census data and 2021 population estimates. Their IUR status (urban area size/rural settlement) may change if the 2023 Census population count moves them up or down a category.
The indicators, by name, with their codes in brackets, are:
urban area – major urban (11), large urban (12), medium urban (13), small urban (14),
rural area – rural settlement (21), rural other (22),
water – inland water (31), inlet (32), oceanic (33).
The urban rural indicator complements the urban rural geography and is an attribute in this dataset. Further information on the urban rural indicator is available on the Stats NZ classification and coding tool ARIA.
For more information please refer to the Statistical standard for geographic areas 2023.
Generalised version
This generalised version has been simplified for rapid drawing and is designed for thematic or web mapping purposes.
Macrons
Names are provided with and without tohutō/macrons. The column name for those without macrons is suffixed ‘ascii’.
Digital data
Digital boundary data became freely available on 1 July 2007.
To download geographic classifications in table formats such as CSV please use Ariā
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This file provides a rural-urban view of 2011 Output Areas (OA) in England and Wales. The 2011 rural-urban classification (RUC) of OAs was released in August 2013. The product was sponsored by a cross-Government working group comprising Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department for Communities and Local Government, Office for National Statistics and the Welsh Government. OAs 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’ OAs are grouped into three broad morphological types based on the predominant settlement component. The classification also categorises OAs based on context – i.e. whether the wider surrounding area of a given OA is sparsely populated or less sparsely populated.
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.
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PLURAL (Place-level urban-rural indices) is a framework to create continuous classifications of "rurality" or "urbanness" based on the spatial configuration of populated places. PLURAL makes use of the concept of "remoteness" to characterize the level of spatial isolation of a populated place with respect to its neighbors. There are two implementations of PLURAL, including (a) PLURAL-1, based on distances to the nearest places of user-specified population classes, and (b) PLURAL-2, based on neighborhood characterization derived from spatial networks. PLURAL requires simplistic input data, i.e., the coordinates (x,y) and population p of populated places (villages, towns, cities) in a given point in time. Due to its simplistic input, the PLURAL rural-urban classification scheme can be applied to historical data, as well as to data from data-scarce settings. Using the PLURAL framework, we created place-level rural-urban indices for the conterminous United States from 1930 to 2018. Rural-urban classifications are essential for analyzing geographic, demographic, environmental, and social processes across the rural-urban continuum. Most existing classifications are, however, only available at relatively aggregated spatial scales, such as at the county scale in the United States. The absence of rurality or urbanness measures at high spatial resolution poses significant problems when the process of interest is highly localized, as with the incorporation of rural towns and villages into encroaching metropolitan areas. Moreover, existing rural-urban classifications are often inconsistent over time, or require complex, multi-source input data (e.g., remote sensing observations or road network data), thus, prohibiting the longitudinal analysis of rural-urban dynamics. We developed a set of distance- and spatial-network-based methods for consistently estimating the remoteness and rurality of places at fine spatial resolution, over long periods of time. Based on these methods, we constructed indices of urbanness for 30,000 places in the United States from 1930 to 2018. We call these indices the place-level urban-rural index (PLURAL), enabling long-term, fine-grained analyses of urban and rural change in the United States. The method paper has been peer-reviewed and is published in "Landscape and Urban Planning". The PLURAL indices from 1930 to 2018 are available as CSV files, and as point-based geospatial vector data (.SHP). Moreover, we provide animated GIF files illustrating the spatio-temporal variation of the different variants of the PLURAL indices, illustrating the dynamics of the rural-urban continuum in the United States from 1930 to 2018. Apply the PLURAL rural-urban classification to your own data: Python code is fully open source and available at https://github.com/johannesuhl/plural. Data sources: Place-level population counts (1980-2010) and place locations 1930 - 2018 were obtained from IPUMS NHGIS, (University of Minnesota, www.nhgis.org; Manson et al. 2022). Place-level population counts 1930-1970 were digitized from historical census records (U.S. Census Bureau 1942, 1964). References: Uhl, J.H., Hunter, L.M., Leyk, S., Connor, D.S., Nieves, J.J., Hester, C., Talbot, C. and Gutmann, M., 2023. Place-level urban–rural indices for the United States from 1930 to 2018. Landscape and Urban Planning, 236, p.104762. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2023.104762 Steven Manson, Jonathan Schroeder, David Van Riper, Tracy Kugler, and Steven Ruggles. IPUMS National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 16.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS. 2021. http://doi.org/10.18128/D050.V16.0 U.S. Census Bureau (1942). U.S. Census of Population: 1940. Vol. I, Number of Inhabitants. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. U.S. Census Bureau (1964). U.S. Census of Population: 1960. Vol. I, Characteristics of the Population. Part I, United States Summary. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
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🇬🇧 영국
022 -- Population according to urban-rural classification in 1990 to 2017
The 2013 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes form a classification scheme that distinguishes metropolitan counties by the population size of their metro area, and nonmetropolitan counties by degree of urbanization and adjacency to a metro area. The official Office of Management and Budget (OMB) metro and nonmetro categories have been subdivided into three metro and six nonmetro categories. Each county in the U.S. is assigned one of the 9 codes. This scheme allows researchers to break county data into finer residential groups, beyond metro and nonmetro, particularly for the analysis of trends in nonmetro areas that are related to population density and metro influence. The Rural-Urban Continuum Codes were originally developed in 1974. They have been updated each decennial since (1983, 1993, 2003, 2013), and slightly revised in 1988. Note that the 2013 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes are not directly comparable with the codes prior to 2000 because of the new methodology used in developing the 2000 metropolitan areas. See the Documentation for details and a map of the codes. An update of the Rural-Urban Continuum Codes is planned for mid-2023.
Population according to urban-rural classification in 1990 to 2016
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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:MorphologyUrban (over 10,000)Rural townVillageDispersed (hamlets and isolated dwellings)And contextSparseLess sparseThis gives 8 Urban/Rural Classification (1 urban and 6 rural):Urban (Sparse)Urban (Less Sparse)Town (Less Sparse)Town (Sparse)Village (Less Sparse)Village (Sparse)Dispersed (Less Sparse)Dispersed (Sparse)In April 2009 significant changes in the structure of local government came into force. These changes, especially the creation of 9 new unitary authorities, have necessitated an update to the Local Authority Classification. The Government Statistical Service Regional and Geography Group (GSSRG) commissioned a working group to look at this issue, and the outcome of this working group is a revised LA Classification. Detailed information about the changes can be found here, with guidance on how to use the Definition and Classification here.
This guide explains how to apply the 2011 Rural Urban Classification to a range of geographies and data for statistical analysis.
Defra statistics: rural
Email mailto:rural.statistics@defra.gov.uk">rural.statistics@defra.gov.uk
<p class="govuk-body">You can also contact us via Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/DefraStats" class="govuk-link">https://twitter.com/DefraStats</a></p>
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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 the year 2020. Data for previous versions are available for download in ESRI Shapefile format.
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 2021 rural-urban classification (RUC) of 2024 Local Authority Districts in England and Wales. This means that the 2021 RUC methodology has been applied to the 2024 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 OAs2. Intermediate Rural: 35-50% rural population3. Intermediate Urban: 20-35% rural population4. Urban: 20% or less of the population lived in rural OAs.Each 2024 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 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 LA 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.
In 2019, there were around 822 male deaths per 100,000 population in the United States in urban areas, while there were around 977 male deaths per 100,000 population in rural areas. This statistic illustrates the male death rate in the United States from 1999 to 2019, by urban-rural classification.
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Refer to the current geographies boundaries table for a list of all current geographies and recent updates.
This dataset is the definitive version of the annually released urban rural (UR) boundaries as at 1 January 2025 as defined by Stats NZ. This version contains 689 UR areas, including 195 urban areas and 402 rural settlements.
Urban rural (UR) is an output geography that classifies New Zealand into areas that share common urban or rural characteristics and is used to disseminate a broad range of Stats NZ’s social, demographic and economic statistics.
The UR separately identifies urban areas, rural settlements, other rural areas, and water areas. Urban areas and rural settlements are form-based geographies delineated by the inspection of aerial imagery, local government land designations on district plan maps, address registers, property title data, and any other available information. However, because the underlying meshblock pattern is used to define the geographies, boundaries may not align exactly with local government land designations or what can be seen in aerial images. Other rural areas, and bodies of water represent areas not included within an urban area.
Urban areas are built from the statistical area 2 (SA2) geography, while rural and water areas are built from the statistical area 1 (SA1) geography.
Urban areas
Urban areas are statistically defined areas with no administrative or legal basis. They are characterised by high population density with many built environment features where people and buildings are located close together for residential, cultural, productive, trade and social purposes.
Urban areas are delineated using the following criteria. They:
form a contiguous cluster of one or more SA2s,
contain an estimated resident population of more than 1,000 people and usually have a population density of more than 400 residents or 200 address points per square kilometre,
have a high coverage of built physical structures and artificial landscapes such as:
have strong economic ties where people gather together to work, and for social, cultural, and recreational interaction,
have planned development within the next 5–8 years.
Urban boundaries are independent of local government and other administrative boundaries. However, the Richmond urban area, which is mainly in the Tasman District, is the only urban area that crosses territorial authority boundaries
Rural areas
Rural areas are classified as rural settlements or other rural.
Rural settlements
Rural settlements are statistically defined areas with no administrative or legal basis. A rural settlement is a cluster of residential dwellings about a place that usually contains at least one community or public building.
Rural settlements are delineated using the following criteria. They:
form a contiguous cluster of one or more SA1s,
contain an estimated resident population of 200–1,000, or at least 40 residential dwellings,
represent a reasonably compact area or have a visible centre of population with a population density of at least 200 residents per square kilometre or 100 address points per square kilometre,
contain at least one community or public building, such as a church, school, or shop.
To reach the target SA2 population size of more than 1,000 residents, rural settlements are usually included with other rural SA1s to form an SA2. In some instances, the settlement and the SA2 have the same name, for example, Kirwee rural settlement is part of the Kirwee SA2.
Some rural settlements whose populations are just under 1,000 are a single SA2. Creating separate SA2s for these rural settlements allows for easy reclassification to urban areas if their populations grow beyond 1,000.
Other rural
Other rural areas are the mainland areas and islands located outside urban areas or rural settlements. Other rural areas include land used for agriculture and forestry, conservation areas, and regional and national parks. Other rural areas are defined by territorial authority.
Water
Bodies of water are classified separately, using the land/water demarcation classification described in the Statistical standard for meshblock. These water areas are not named and are defined by territorial authority or regional council.
The water classes include:
inland water – non-contiguous, defined by territorial authority,
inlets (which also includes tidal areas and harbours) – non-contiguous, defined by territorial authority,
oceanic – non-contiguous, defined by regional council.
To minimise suppression of population data, separate meshblocks have been created for marinas. These meshblocks are attached to adjacent land in the UR geography.
Non-digitised
The following 4 non-digitised UR areas have been aggregated from the 16 non-digitised meshblocks/SA2s.
6901; Oceanic outside region, 6902; Oceanic oil rigs, 6903; Islands outside region, 6904; Ross Dependency outside region.
UR numbering and naming
Each urban area and rural settlement is a single geographic entity with a name and a numeric code.
Other rural areas, inland water areas, and inlets are defined by territorial authority; oceanic areas are defined by regional council; and each have a name and a numeric code.
Urban rural codes have four digits. North Island locations start with a 1, South Island codes start with a 2, oceanic codes start with a 6 and non-digitised codes start with 69.
Urban rural indicator (IUR)
The accompanying urban rural indicator (IUR) classifies the urban, rural, and water areas by type. Urban areas are further classified by the size of their estimated resident population:
This was based on 2018 Census data and 2021 population estimates. Their IUR status (urban area size/rural settlement) may change if the 2025 Census population count moves them up or down a category.
The indicators, by name, with their codes in brackets, are:
urban area – major urban (11), large urban (12), medium urban (13), small urban (14),
rural area – rural settlement (21), rural other (22),
water – inland water (31), inlet (32), oceanic (33).
High definition version
This high definition (HD) version is the most detailed geometry, suitable for use in GIS for geometric analysis operations and for the computation of areas, centroids and other metrics. The HD version is aligned to the LINZ cadastre.
Macrons
Names are provided with and without tohutō/macrons. The column name for those without macrons is suffixed ‘ascii’.
Digital data
Digital boundary data became freely available on 1 July 2007.
Further information
To download geographic classifications in table formats such as CSV please use Ariā
For more information please refer to the Statistical standard for geographic areas 2023.
Contact: geography@stats.govt.nz
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 the year 2020. Data for previous versions are available for download in ESRI Shapefile format.The following processes were performed by Esri: The simplify polygon tool was run to reduce the number of vertices, fields were deleted and changed in the attribute table.