A new 2011 UK Output Area Classification (OAC) is currently being produced through a collaborative project between the Office for National Statistics and University College London. Due to the timing of the data releases in Northern Ireland and Scotland, a preliminary OAC has been constructed for England & Wales. ONS/UCL are currently seeking users’ views on this work via a short questionnaire available from here.
In short, the 2011 OAC:
- updates the previous 2001 OAC (more details);
- is freely available;
- indicates the character of small areas;
- contains a three-tiered hierarchical classification of 8 Supergroups, 24 Groups and 67 Subgroups (e.g. “Hard-pressed Households”);
- can be used for area profiling, structuring data and targeting resources
As with 2001 OAC, we intend to make the 2011 OAC available to users through SASPAC.
Posted by SASPAC 