Rural urban classifications, 2001 and 2011 based

2001 and 2011 based classifications
In 2004 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs provided a very detailed 'definition' of rural morphology at a number of small geographical levels below local authority, namely ward, middle layer super output area, lower layer super output area and census output Area (COA). The last of these geographies had been developed for the 2001 Census, released from 2002 onwards, and the super output areas were developed over the following two years as aggregations of the COAs for reporting both the census and other statistics. At COA level the rural morphology types were either 'urban' or one of three rural types, 'town and fringe', 'village' or 'hamlet and isolated dwellings'. At the higher levels the last two morphology types were merged into one 'village, hamlet and isolated dwellings'. As well as the morphology types there were two contexts: 'less sparse' and 'sparse'. In theory either context could be combined with any morphology, but in practice the 'sparse' context was usually associated with village and hamlet morphologies, and within Lancashire there were only three 'sparse' definitions applied. All were in Lancaster district, all at COA level and all in conjunction with the 'hamlet and isolated dwellings' morphology.

Following the 2011 Census, for which some COAs and super output areas had been revised, a new definition, or classification, was developed. The defining terms were modified so that there were three urban typologies: 'major conurbation', 'minor conurbation' and 'city and town' while the rural typologies were as before. Hence the word 'town' appeared in both urban and rural settings. For context the phrase 'in a sparse setting' was added to any of the rural types and the 'urban city and town' type. Again in Lancashire the sparse setting only occurred in Lancaster, only at COA level and only in conjunction with 'hamlet and isolated dwellings, but this time only on two occasions. Additionally there were no parts of Lancashire classified as 'urban minor conurbation'.

Changes from the 2011 classification
For Lancashire-12, % rural by area has fallen marginally from 79.5% to 79.4%
% urban by area has risen marginally from 20.5% to 20.6%
% rural by population has risen slightly from 20.6% to 21%
% urban by population has fallen slightly from 79.4% to 79%
For Lancashire-14, % rural by area has fallen marginally from 77.9% to 77.8%
% urban by area has risen marginally from 22.1% to 22.2%
% rural by population has risen slightly from 17.1% to 17.4%
% urban by population has fallen slightly from 82.9% to 82.6%
Figure 5 displays where these changes took place