Urban areas in the UK

You asked

Under the Freedom of Information Act could you tell me:

1. How much of the land of the United Kingdom is built on?

2. How much of the land of the United Kingdom is urban?

3. How much, overall with all building taken into consideration, of the land of the United Kingdom is covered with buildings?

We said

1. and 2.

   The Ordnance Survey may be better placed to provide a definitive answer to this query as ONS do not produce land cover statistics. Having said that, there are two products which provide a consistent definition of 'built-up areas' and 'urban' for statistical purposes (specifically the release of 2011 Census data). While not designed to provide precise land cover statistics, they can be used to provide a rough estimate. It should be noted that these products cover England and Wales only.

   Using these products in 2011 built-up areas covered 1.4 million hectares (9.6 per cent of England and Wales), while urban areas covered 1.1 million hectares (7.4 per cent of England and Wales). It is important to understand the definitions used in these datasets and so I have included some key points below, together with links to further information.

   Built-up areas (BUAs)
   BUAs have a minimum area of 20 hectares (200,000 m2). Some land cover which is not technically 'built-on' but is associated with buildings (eg. gardens) is included in this definition. Open space fully surrounded by built-up areas are also included (this normally applies to parks and sports fields but occasionally picks up fields/farmland). The figure quoted above is based on the 5,493 BUAs in England and Wales for which Census data were produced. It should be noted that a further 337 built-up areas were identified but where a population was not allocated (industrial estates, airports, theme parks, etc).

   User guidance is available here. For example:

   Rural-urban classification (RUC)
   This product is based on the BUAs dataset. The urban domain of the RUC is made up from BUAs with a population of 10,000 or more people. The methodology used to create the RUC for small area geographies.

2. ONS do not hold this information. In the production process Ordnance Survey, who created the BUA dataset on behalf of a government consortium, may have identified all 'built-up' areas - ie. including those with an area of less than 20 hectares (as per the definition above)