Urban and Rural Indicators (high level breakdowns)

Dataset: Family Resources Survey (Household Food Security)

Field: Urban and Rural Indicators (high level breakdowns)

Description

The Urban and Rural Indicators (high level breakdowns) for Households located in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as reported by FRS respondents, where:

A household consists of one person living alone or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address, who share cooking facilities and share a living room or sitting room or dining area. A household will consist of one or more benefit units.

England & Wales:

The 2011 Rural-Urban Classification for Output Areas in England (and Wales)

The Classification defines areas as rural if they fall outside of settlements with more than 10,000 resident population. For the smallest geography areas, the classification assigns them to one of four urban or six rural categories (compressed to two Urban and three Rural for use in FRS published tables):

Broad Category	Category used in FRS publication	Detailed Category: Description
Rural	Mainly Rural	Hamlets and Isolated Dwellings in a sparse setting
Rural	Mainly Rural	Hamlets and Isolated Dwellings
Rural	Largely Rural	Village in a sparse setting
Rural	Largely Rural	Village
Rural	Urban with Significant Rural	Town and Fringe in a sparse setting
Rural	Urban with Significant Rural	Town and Fringe
Urban	Urban City and Town	City and Town in a sparse setting
Urban	Urban City and Town	City and Town
Urban	Urban Conurbation	Minor conurbation
Urban	Urban Conurbation	Major conurbation

Scotland:

http://scottish-government-urban-rural-classification-2020-8-fold-map.pdf

Large urban areas	Settlements of over 125,000 people
Other urban areas	Settlements of 10,000 to 125,000 people
Accessible small towns	Settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people and within 30-minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more
Remote small towns	Settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people and with a drive time of between 30 and 60-minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more
Very remote small towns	Settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people and within a drive time of over 60-minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more
Accessible rural	Settlements of less than 3,000, within 30-minutes drive to a settlement of 10,000 or more
Remote rural	Settlements of less than 3,000 people and with a drive time of between 30 and 60-minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more
Very remote rural	Settlements of less than 3,000 people and with a drive time of over 60-minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more

Northern Ireland:

Since the 2015 review of the 'Statistical classification and delineation of settlements', urban settlements in Northern Ireland are classified as those with a population greater than or equal to 5,000 people (Bands A-E).

Settlement (2015) Classification Bands	FRS categories
Band A: Belfast City	Belfast City
Band B: Derry City
Band C: Large Town, population greater than 18,000 people
Band D: Medium Town, population between 10,000 and 18,000 people	Other Urban
Band E: Small Town, population between 5,000 and 9,999 people
Band F: Intermediate Settlements, population between 2,500 and 4,999 people
Band G: Village, population between 1,000 and 2,499 people	Rural
Band H: Open Countryside and small villages with population less than 1,000 people

Classification

Applicable to: all individuals in a household.

England and Wales
Scotland
Northern Ireland
Not available

Number of categories: 4

Quality Statement

Further information can be found in the FRS Background Note and Methodology here.