8 May 2006
The Census Dissemination Unit (CDU) at MIMAS, based at the University of Manchester, is pleased to announce the release of the National Statistics 2001 Area Classification via Casweb, the CDU's online interface to census data.
The National Statistics 2001 Area Classification compares geographic areas in terms of a range of population characteristics derived from the 2001 Census, and groups them into a hierarchy of clusters sharing similar combinations of those characteristics. There are three levels of clusters within the classification, the largest of which contains seven 'super-groups', which are split into twenty one 'groups', and then further split into fifty two 'subgroups'. Clusters are given names reflecting their particular combinations of characteristics, such as 'Thriving London Periphery', 'New & Growing Towns' or 'Industrial Hinterlands', for example.
Similar classifications were produced following censuses in 1971, 1981 and 1991, but this is the first time that such a classification has been produced for the entire UK. 2001 Area Classification data is available from Casweb - http://www.census.ac.uk/casweb/ - at local authority, ward and output area levels of geography, based on the 2003 boundaries used for 2001 Census outputs. Area Classification data is not currently available from Casweb for Scottish postcode sectors, as it was not produced for this geography, but rather for Scottish wards, which are not a standard census geography. Area Classification data for Scottish Standard Table wards is available from the ONS 2001 Area Classification website.
For further information and links to related sites, visit the National Statistics 2001 Area Classification pages of the CDU website at http://cdu.mimas.ac.uk/2001/areaclass/.
Access to the data via Casweb is controlled by Athens authentication. Information about the Athens authentication system is available from the Census Registration Service website at http://census.data-archive.ac.uk/.
Please direct any comments or queries about the Experian data, or any other of the CDU's services to:
MIMAS Census Helpdesk
E-mail - census@mimas.ac.uk
Telephone - 0161 275 6109
Details of the full range of Census Dissemination Unit services can be found on the CDU website at http://cdu.mimas.ac.uk/.
Information about other census-related resources available as part of the ESRC/JISC 2001 Census of Population Programme can be found at http://census.ac.uk/.
