Lancashire Insight: Rural Urban Classifications
Rural Urban Classification 2021
Key points
- The RUC 2021 placed 79% of the Lancashire-12 population and 20.6% of its land area in 'Urban' classified areas
- The RUC 2021 placed 21% of the Lancashire-12 population and 79.4% of its land area in 'Rural' classified areas
- 82.6% of the Lancashire-14 population and 22.2% of its land area were placed in 'Urban' classified areas
- 17.4% of the Lancashire-14 population and 77.8% of its land area were placed in 'Urban' classified areas
- In terms of the LAD level classifications, six of the Lancashire-12 districts were classified as 'Urban', three as 'Intermediate urban', two as 'Intermediate rural' and one as 'Majority rural'
- Both of the unitary authorities (Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool) were classified as 'Urban'
A detailed explanation of the 2021 Rural Urban Classification (RUC) methodology can be found on the ONS website
Small area classifications
The full RUC classification is based on address density, physical settlement form, population size and relative access to major towns and cities. The first three of these factors are used to determine the settlement classification. In 2021 there are only three categories (as opposed to six in 2011), these being
- Urban
- Larger rural settlement
- Smaller rural settlement
The fourth basis for the RUC, relative access to major towns and cities, determines a separate measure with two categories, these being
- Nearer to a major town and city
- Further from a major town and city
The measurement is in terms of travel time rather than distance. The criterium is whether it is possible to drive to a major town and city with a population of 75,000 or more in 30 minutes. The remoteness measure serves as a proxy indicator of access to services, goods, opportunities and jobs.
These categories are then blended into six full RUC categories. Figure 1 in the Power BI report shows the full classification as a map for LSOAs. Table 3 shows population and area (hectares) with percentages for the full classification at Census Output Area (COA) level. The RUC21 does not give population or hectare figures for Lancashire. We have calculated these ourselves. The map below shows the RUC settlement classification at the most detailed COA level. Click on the map for a larger version in pdf format.
Settlement classifications, COA 2021
Populations and area totals of Lancashire-12 and Lancashire-14 areas by RUC 2021, based on COA level data
| Relative access | Nearer to a major town or city | Further from a major town or city | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Settlement class | Urban | Larger rural | Smaller rural | Urban | Larger rural | Smaller rural |
| Lancashire-12 | ||||||
| Area: (ha) | 5,622.5 | 1,542.5 | 14,980.4 | 336 | 127.5 | 6,342.8 |
| Area: % | 19.4% | 5.3% | 51.7% | 1.2% | 0.4% | 21.9% |
| Population | 873,260 | 127,567 | 101,878 | 102,309 | 13,848 | 16,533 |
| Population: % | 70.7% | 10.3% | 8.3% | 8.3% | 1.1% | 1.3% |
| Lancashire-14 | ||||||
| Area: (ha) | 6,468.3 | 1,547.6 | 15,848.7 | 336 | 127.5 | 6,342.8 |
| Area: % | 21.1% | 5.0% | 51.7% | 1.1% | 0.4% | 20.7% |
| Population | 1,162,035 | 128,717 | 107,744 | 102,309 | 13,848 | 16,533 |
| Population: % | 75.9% | 8.4% | 7.0% | 6.7% | 0.9% | 1.1% |
Geographies
The classification is for different geographical levels: Census Output Areas (COAs) of which there are 4,982 in the Lancashire-14 area, Lower layer Super Output areas (LSOAs) of which there are 945 in the Lancashire-14 areas and Middle layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs) of which there are 190 In the Lancashire Authority areas as well as local authority districts (LADs) which are classified differently. This article does not use the MSOA level data. Headline figures are based on COA level classification. These are shown in the above table and in the more detailed table 3 in the Microsoft Power BI report. Other maps, figures and tables in the Power BI report are based on LSOA classifications. We have matched the 2001 and 2011 based RUCs to 2021 LSOAs (as far as this is possible) to compare the results over time and to indicate change.
County, district and national comparisons (using COA level)
The RUC 2021 places 79% of the population and 20.6% of Lancashire-12 land area in 'Urban' classified areas. Consequently the rural population is 21% of the total and rural land area is 79.4% of the total. For the Lancashire-14 area the urban percentages are 82.6% and 22.2% respectively while rural percentages are 17.4% and 77.8%. See table 3 for more details.
Blackpool is the only local authority in Lancashire which is entirely urban. By area Rossendale (69.1%) and South Ribble (66.4%) are the most urban in the Lancashire-12 area. Ribble Valley is 95.3% rural by area, closely followed by Lancaster (94.1%). Wyre, West Lancashire and Chorley are over 80% rural by area.
In terms of classification by population, Preston (94.9%), Burnley (94.8%), South Ribble (94%) and Rossendale (93.7%) are by far mostly urban. Only Ribble Valley is mostly rural at 61.4%. The districts with the highest percentage urban population tend to have very few areas and small population size classed as 'Larger rural'. The percentage urban population of the Lancashire-14 area (82.6%) is very close to the England and Wales figure (82.5%). The England and Wales area percentage for urban of 15.5% is noticeably lower than the Lancashire-14 figure of 22.2%. This may be due to the relatively small amount of high-rise housing in Lancashire compared to the larger cities.
Here, we abbreviate the category names 'Nearer to a major town or city' and 'Further from a major town or city' to 'Nearer to' and 'Further from'. From table 3 in the Microsoft Power BI report it is seen that just 10.7% of the population of the Lancashire-12 area came under the 'Further from' relative access category. The percentage by area was 23.5%, nearly a quarter of the total. For Lancashire-14 area these percentages were less at 8.7% and 22.2% respectively, because there were no parts of Blackburn with Darwen or Blackpool that were 'Further from'. Only COAs from three districts are allocated to this category: much of Lancaster, seven in the north part of Ribble Valley and two in Wyre. The 'Smaller urban' COAs are quite large in terms of land area. The distribution of the two categories on the map, figure 1, might appear confusing at first glance. The urban part of Lancaster City was 'Further from' while the 'Smaller rural' area immediately to the south was 'Nearer to'. The explanation is not very straightforward. The Lancaster built-up area had a population of 53 thousand and was thereby below the 75 thousand population threshold of a major town or city. Morecambe had a population of 32 thousand and, although these built-up areas adjoin, they are regarded as separate. The 'Nearer to' areas just south of Lancaster City were so classed because the drive-time to Preston must be within 30 minutes. The even more confusing rural areas to the north-east of Lancaster City which are 'Nearer to' must also be within 30 minutes drive-time of Preston by virtue of their proximity to Junction 34 of the M6 motorway. Within most of Lancashire, apart from Lancaster, Ribble Valley and Wyre, the relative access category is just 'Nearer to'. In the Lancashire-12 area 89.3% of the population and 76.5% of the land area are in the 'Nearer to' category. For Lancashire-14 these rates are 91.3% and 77.8%.
Local Authority District (LAD) classifications
The RUC divides local authorities into four categories of urban, intermediate urban, intermediate rural and rural majority. Eight of Lancashire's local authorities are classified as urban, (Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Preston, Rossendale and South Ribble) three are intermediate urban (Fylde, Lancaster and Wyre), two are intermediate rural (Chorley and West Lancashire) and one is rural majority (Ribble Valley).
The LAD categories are based on % of rural population at COA level thus
Urban: <20% rural pop
Intermediate urban: 20-<35% rural pop
Intermediate rural: 35-<50% rural pop
Majority rural >=50% rural pop
At COA level West Lancashire has highest number of residents living in Rural COAs 42,853 (36.5%), above Chorley with 42,107 (35.8%). Ribble Valley had 37,782. At LSOA level Chorley had more (42,418) compared to West Lancashire (41,939) See Table 2. Notice change from 2011 when Chorley only had 4th largest rural population.
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'.
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 in the Microsoft Power BI report displays where these changes took place
page updated May 2025