Rural Urban Classification (2021) of MSOAs in EW

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Office for National Statistics
Last updated:
09 March 2025
Topic:
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Summary

The 2021 rural-urban classification (RUC) of Middle layer Super Output Areas (MSOA) in England and Wales. Middle layer Super Output Areas are assigned their RUC classification based on their Output Area (OA) settlement class (‘Urban’, ‘Larger rural’ and ‘Smaller rural’) and relative access category (‘nearer to a major town or city’ and ‘further from a major town or city’) of the majority population that are resident within them.

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).

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