ONS codes are

geocodes A geocode is a code that represents a geographic entity (location or object). It is a unique identifier of the entity, to distinguish it from others in a finite set of geographic entities. In general the ''geocode'' is a human-readable and s ...

maintained by the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible for t ...

to represent a wide range of geographical areas of the UK, for use in tabulating

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

and other statistical data. These codes are also known as GSS codes, where GSS refers to the ''

Government Statistical Service The Government Statistical Service (GSS) is the community of all civil servants in the United Kingdom who work in the collection, production and communication of official statistics. It includes not only statisticians, but also economists, socia ...

'' of which ONS is part. The previous hierarchical system of codes was replaced as from January 2011 by a nine-character code for all types of geography, in which there is no relation between the code for a lower-tier area and the corresponding parent area. The older coding system has now been phased out.

Geography of the UK Census

Information from the 2011 Census is published for a wide variety of geographical units. These areas include: *

Counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

* Districts within English counties, and

Unitary Authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

areas served by one council providing district and county functions * Unitary council areas in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

Civil parishes In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...

( communities in Wales) * Electoral wards (called electoral divisions in Wales). These are the areas defined for the election of local councillors, but are also widely used for presenting statistics at a smaller scale than the whole district. * Census output areas (OA). These are the smallest unit for which census data are published - they were initially generated to support publication of 2001 Census outputs and contain at least 40 households and 100 persons, the target size being 125 households. They were built up from postcode blocks ''after'' the census data were available, with the intention of standardising population sizes, geographical shape and social homogeneity (in terms of dwelling types and housing tenure). The OAs generated in 2001 were retained as far as possible for the publication of outputs from the 2011 Census (less than 3% were changed). Before 2001, census data were published for larger Enumeration Districts (ED) which were delineated before the census was conducted and were the organisational units for census data collection.

Neighbourhood Statistics Geography

Super Output Areas (SOAs) are a set of geographical areas developed following the 2001 census, initially to facilitate the calculation of the

Indices of Deprivation 2004 The Indices of deprivation 2004 (ID 2004) is a deprivation index at the small area level, created by the British Department for Communities and Local Government(DCLG). It is unusual in its inclusion of a measure of geographical access as an elemen ...

and subsequently for a range of additional

Neighbourhood Statistics The Neighbourhood Statistics Service (NeSS) was established in 2001 by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit (NRU) - then part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), now Communities and Local ...

(NeSS). The aim was to produce a set of areas of consistent size, whose boundaries would not change (unlike electoral wards), suitable for the publication of data such as the Indices of Deprivation. They are an aggregation of adjacent Output Areas with similar social characteristics. Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) typically contain 4 to 6 OAs with a population of around 1500. Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs) on average have a population of 7,200. The hierarchy of Output Areas and the two tiers of Super Output Areas have become known as the Neighbourhood Statistics Geography. MSOAs use the name of the local or unitary authority followed by three digits, for example "Tower Hamlets 022" which is E02000885. LSOAs use the name of the containing MSOA followed by a letter, for example "Tower Hamlets 022C" which is E01004304. Some LSOAs and MSOAs were revised in alignment with the 2021 Census.

Former hierarchical coding system

The older ONS code was constructed top down: *A two-character code represented an

administrative county An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until either 1973 (in Northern Ireland) or 2002 (in the Republic of Ireland). They are now abolished, although mos ...

. :For example, 12 for Cambridgeshire. *A four-character code represented a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

, so that the first two characters showed the county in which the district was placed. :For example, 12UB for Cambridge district or 12UD for Fenland. *In the case of a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

(including metropolitan and London boroughs) the first two digits were 00. :For example, 00AL for

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

(London Borough) or 00EC for

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. *Local Government wards were given a two-letter code within their local authority. :For example, 12UBGA for Petersfield Ward within Cambridge district. *The smallest level, Census OAs were originally given an additional 4 digits within a ward, so that the first output area in Petersfield Ward was coded 12UBGA0001. *Civil parishes were also coded using this hierarchical system. Parishes were coded using an additional 3 digits after their local authority. For example, within 12UD for Fenland district, the parish of Tydd St. Giles was coded 12UD010.

Current GSS coding system

The current system replaces these codes with a fixed length code of nine characters. The first three characters indicate the level of geography and the six digits following define the individual unit. For example, the Royal Borough of Greenwich is coded as E09000011, Middlesbrough is E06000002, Cambridge E07000008 and Fenland E07000010. The meaning of some common three character prefixes is as follows: In 2019, the House of Commons Library proposed names instead of numeric codes for MSOAs to make them easier to use.

Nine-character GSS codes

A full and up-to-date listing of GSS names and codes may be found by following the link to ONS Geography's Code History Database, below.

References

External links

ONS Beginners' Guide to UK Geography

Open Geography portal

* ttps://mapit.mysociety.org/ Mapit - shows ONS boundaries for any postcode {{DEFAULTSORT:Ons Coding System Geocodes 2011 United Kingdom census Office for National Statistics