Are we there yet?
Understanding the travel time between places across England and Wales, with the Office for National Statistics.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Rural Urban Classification is used to distinguish rural and urban areas, as part of national census data.
As part of creating a new Rural Urban Classification for England and Wales, ONS needed data that calculated the travel time by road between built up areas, to explore physical connectivity between places.
The data helps public and private sector decision makers and providers understand what’s needed and deliver vital public services such as healthcare and broadband.
"Having a Rural Urban Classification adds to our understanding of how society’s changing, can impact planning funds and access to services – such as healthcare and broadband. Combining census data with classifications can be a really powerful way of helping decision makers."
There are four urban categories including City and Town, and six rural categories including Hamlets and Isolated Dwellings. The Classification defines areas as rural if they fall outside of settlements with more than 10,000 resident population.
In the past, the Rural Urban Classification has used OS’s Topography to understand the density profiles of buildings in context to the wider landscape.
To better estimate connectivity between places, the OS data science team used OS MasterMap Highways Road & RAMI (Routing and Asset Management) and OS Open Built Up Areas to create a network which calculated the distance and time between each built up area.
The new Rural Urban Classification will investigate using travel time between places, as well as whether they are classified as rural or urban.
"OS’s bespoke data sets and expert advice have enabled us to understand the connectivity between and support the creation of a new Rural Urban Classification for England and Wales. Being able to benefit from a wider range of accurate, high quality geographical information and factor that into our statistics is extremely helpful for us as an organisation, as well as decision makers and the general public. Beyond that, OS is also a friendly ear, always willing to provide extra support."
With the new connectivity data, ONS’s Rural Urban Classification will help decision makers and service providers understand how society is changing and improve access to services.
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