Intermediate zones are a statistical geography that sit between data zones and local authorities, created for use with the Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics (SNS) programme. Intermediate zones are used for the dissemination of statistics that are not suitable for release at the data zone level because of the sensitive nature of the statistics, or for reasons of reliability. Intermediate Zones were designed to meet constraints on population thresholds (2,500 - 6,000 household residents), to nest within local authorities (as they were in 2001), and to be built up from data zones. The aim was also to build intermediate zones by grouping together data zones with similar social characteristics, to have fairly compact shape and to take into account physical boundaries. Intermediate zones are a stable geography and can be used to analyse change over time.
There are 1,235 intermediate zones across Scotland, and each have been assigned an individual code that follows the Scottish Government's standard naming and coding convention. The code prefix is S02, which has been assigned to designate intermediate zones. In most cases, intermediate zones were also been assigned a name by the relevant Community Planning Partnership. From time to time Local Authorities may choose to update these names, and this dataset will be updated to reflect these changes.
