Rural Urban Classification (2021) of Output Areas in EW

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Office for National Statistics
Last updated:
31 March 2025
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Summary

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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