FOI REF: FOI/2023/4882

You asked

​Please can you provide what information you hold on when the population data for civil parishes/communities in England and Wales is likely to be published?

We said

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request.

Unfortunately, we do not have a specific date yet for when parish level data will be released beyond the general phases two and three of our release plans for 2023

Following consultation with data users, we confirmed that we plan to continue using Output Areas (OAs) as the main geographical base for Census 2021 outputs. We will make the following administrative, electoral, health and postcode geographies available by aggregating OAs, on a best-fit basis:

  • counties

  • local authorities and unitary authorities

  • local health boards in Wales

  • Sub- Integrated Care Board Locations

  • parishes or Welsh communities

  • postcode districts, sectors and areas

  • UK Parliamentary constituencies

  • wards

This best-fit methodology is described in the Geography Policy for the Government Statistical Service.

This therefore means that there is no Parish level data included in the initial topic summaries which we began to release on the 2nd November 2022. However, as soon as it is practical, we plan to provide these datasets for other geographies, such as parishes, using the OA best-fit approach mentioned above.