Output geography
The current ONS policy for England and Wales output geography is, as far as possible, to maintain existing geographies for 2011 Census outputs. Some modification of the Output Areas (OAs) and Super Output Areas (SOAs) created from 2001 Census data will be required to take account of any significant changes that will have occurred since the last census.
A consultation on the value of OAs and SOAs was carried out between November 2006 and February 2007 to inform National Statistics policy on geography for the 2011 Census.
The consultation showed strong overall support for stability and continuity between 2001 and 2011 output geographies. This key conclusion, as well as conclusions from the consultation on a range of other geography related questions, is informing ONS policy on 2011 Census geography. The 2007 consultation can be viewed here, along with its conclusions. A progress document about how ONS are taking forward those conclusions is available from the downloads section to the right of this page.
Further consultation will be run on the following geography issues as part of the outputs consultation from November 2009:
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Plans for creating a small area geography for workplace statistics for 2011 related to OAs
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The need for an Upper Layer SOA set
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Whether some instances of OAs/SOAs are not fit for purpose
Geography in Scotland
As with England and Wales, stability with 2001 OAs is an important factor and, where maintenance is required due to population change, this will be done by splitting and merging existing OAs. There will also be an attempt to realign OAs at the English and Scottish border to account for differing methodologies.
Geography in Northern Ireland
Local Government restructuring in Northern Ireland (NI) has created a requirement for an entirely new set of OAs and SOAs to reflect the new administrative areas. This will lead to an entirely new methodology for NI Census outputs as they attempt to align output areas methodology with other administrative geographies, such as enumeration districts.
