Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification

The Scottish Government (SG) Urban Rural Classification provides a consistent way of defining urban and rural areas across Scotland. The classification aids policy development and the understanding of issues facing urban, rural and remote communities. It is based upon two main criteria:

(i) population as defined by National Records of Scotland (NRS), and

(ii) accessibility based on drive time analysis to differentiate between accessible and remote areas in Scotland.

The classification can be analysed in a two, three, six or eight fold form. The two-fold classification simply distinguishes between urban and rural areas through two categories, urban and rural, while the three-fold classification splits the rural category between accessible and remote. Most commonly used is the 6-fold classification which distinguishes between urban, rural, and remote areas through six categories. The 8-fold classification further distinguishes between remote and very remote regions. The Classification is normally updated on a biennial basis, with the current dataset reflective of the year 2016. Data for previous versions are available for download in ESRI Shapefile format.

 
Citation proposal
(2018) . Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification. Scottish Government https://services.mspdata.eu:/geonetwork/srv/api/records/564db46c-3153-423c-ac84-90d41ec2652c

Simple

Date ( Publication )
2018-03-29
Identifier
www.gov.scot / SG_UrbanRural
Presentation form
mapDigital Digital map

  Publisher

  Point of contact

Maintenance and update frequency
asNeeded As needed
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 ( Theme )
  • Land use
IPSV - Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary, version 2
  • Rural communities , Urban communities
Keywords
  • Rural areas
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
No limitations on public access
Use limitation
The following attribution statement must be used to acknowledge the source of the information: Copyright Scottish Government, contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right (insert year).
Spatial representation type
vector Vector
Denominator
10000
Metadata language
eng English
Topic category
  • Society
Geographic identifier
GB-SCT

 

Date ( Revision )
2007-12-13

N
S
E
W


Supplemental Information
http://www.gov.scot/urbanrural
Reference system identifier
EPSG / OSGB 1936 / British National Grid (EPSG:27700) / 7.4
Distribution format
  • WMS (1.3.0 )

  • WFS (2.0.0 )

  • ESRI REST (1.0 )

  • ESRI Shapefile (1.0 )

OnLine resource
Urban Rural Classification  

OGC View Service

OnLine resource
Urban_Rural_Classification  

OGC Feature Download Service

OnLine resource
Urban Rural Classification  

ESRI REST Service

OnLine resource
Land Use  

ATOM Download Service

OnLine resource
Topic Page - Scottish Government Website  

Urban Rural Classification

OnLine resource
Outline of Scottish Government classification and comparison with other UK classifications  

Urban Rural Classification Storymap

OnLine resource
Urban Rural Classification 2016  

ESRI Shapefile - SGUR 2016

OnLine resource
Urban Rural Classification 2013-2014  

ESRI Shapefile - SGUR 2013-2014

OnLine resource
Urban Rural Classification 2011-2012  

ESRI Shapefile - SGUR 2011-2012

Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Statement

The Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification was created by combining population and accessibility information to distinguish between urban and rural areas across Scotland. Population information is sourced from the Settlements dataset provided by National Records of Scotland (NRS), and accessibility information is obtained by calculating drive times from the centres of Settlements with a population of 10,000 or more (i.e. urban areas). Datasets used to create the classification are as follows:

• Scottish Settlements, centroids and population estimates (NRS)

• English Settlement centroids for populations of 10,000 or more (i.e. Berwick-upon-Tweed and Carlisle, Ordnance Survey)

• Transport network for Scotland and major routes for Northern England (Ordnance Survey)

• Scottish Ferry Routes (Scottish Government)

• High and Low Water Mark Coastline (Ordnance Survey)

The first stage in creating the classification was to categorise the Settlements dataset using the population thresholds of 125,000, 10,000 and 3,000 to identify those settlements from which drive times will be calculated. Settlements were grouped into the following categories:

(1) Large Urban Areas - populations of 125,000 or more

(2) Other Urban Areas - populations of 10,000 to 124,999

(3) Small Towns - populations of 3,000 to 9,999

(4) Rural Areas - populations less than 3,000

To distinguish between accessible and remote areas, drive time isochrones were created based on a 30 minute drive time from population weighted centroids of Settlements with a population of 10,000 or more (i.e. Large and Other Urban Areas, and including the two settlements in northern England of Berwick-upon-Tweed and Carlisle). For the 8-fold Classification, an additional 60 minute drive time was also calculated. Thus, the following definitions of remoteness were defined:

(1) Accessible - Areas within a 30 minute drive time from Settlements of 10,000 or more

(2) Remote - Areas that are more than a 30 minute drive time (6-fold classification), or areas that have a drive time between 30 and 60 minutes (8-fold classification) from a Settlement of 10,000 or more

(3) Very Remote - Areas that are more than a 60 minute drive time from a Settlement of 10,000 or more (8-fold only)

Combining both the population and accessibility measures, a Scotland-wide Urban Rural Classification can be defined. The 6-fold classification distinguishes between urban, rural and remote areas by the following categories:

(1) Large Urban Areas - Settlements of 125,000 people or more

(2) Other Urban Areas - Settlements of 10,000 to 124,999 people

(3) Accessible Small Towns - Settlements of 3,000 to 9,999 people, and within a 30 minute drive time of a Settlement of 10,000 or more

(4) Remote Small Towns - Settlements of 3,000 to 9,999 people, and with a drive time of over 30 minutes to a Settlement of 10,000 or more

(5) Accessible Rural Areas – Areas with a population of less than 3,000 people, and within a 30 minute drive time of a Settlement of 10,000 or more

(6) Remote Rural Areas - Areas with a population of less than 3,000 people, and with a drive time of over 30 minutes to a Settlement of 10,000 or more

An 8-fold classification is also defined, which distinguishes between Remote and Very Remote areas by the addition of a 60 minute drive time threshold. The categories for the 8-fold classification are as follows:

(1) Large Urban Areas - Settlements of 125,000 people and over

(2) Other Urban Areas - Settlements of 10,000 to 124,999 people

(3) Accessible Small Towns - Settlements of 3,000 to 9,999 people, and within a 30 minute drive time of a Settlement of 10,000 or more

(4) Remote Small Towns - Settlements of 3,000 to 9,999 people, and with a drive time of over 30 minutes but less than or equal to 60 minutes to a Settlement of 10,000 or more

(5) Very Remote Small Towns - Settlements of 3,000 to 9,999 people, and with a drive time of over 60 minutes to a Settlement of 10,000 or more

(6) Accessible Rural Areas - Areas with a population of less than 3,000 people, and within a drive time of 30 minutes to a Settlement of 10,000 or more

(7) Remote Rural Areas - Areas with a population of less than 3,000 people, and with a drive time of over 30 minutes but less than or equal to 60 minutes to a Settlement of 10,000 or more

(8) Very Remote Rural Areas - Areas with a population of less than 3,000 people, and with a drive time of over 60 minutes to a Settlement of 10,000 or more

For further details on the methodology, please see publication report accessible from the main Urban Rural Classification topic page on the Scottish Government’s website.

Metadata

File identifier
564db46c-3153-423c-ac84-90d41ec2652c   XML
Metadata language
eng English
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Date stamp
2019-01-18
Metadata standard name
ISO 19115:2003/19139
Metadata standard version
1.0

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