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Guides
UK Census Geographies
Guides
for everything Geocodio
UK Census Geographies
Census counts, deprivation scores, and many other UK government statistics are published for small areas such as Output Areas and LSOAs instead of individual addresses. To use that data with your own list of customers, patients, or properties, you first need to know which area each address sits in.
Geocodio’s uk-census append adds those areas to a spreadsheet or API request in one step. One append returns eight census geographies, across all four nations. Scotland and Northern Ireland use their own names for some geographies: Data Zones and Intermediate Zones in Scotland, and Data Zones and Super Data Zones in Northern Ireland.
What are Output Areas, LSOAs, and MSOAs?
The UK census append returns eight geographies, from the smallest census unit up to the regional level. Data Zones get their own row in the table below, but Geocodio returns them in the same field as LSOAs.
| Geographies | What it is | What it's good for |
|---|---|---|
| Output Area (OA) | The smallest area census results are published for. In England and Wales, each has 40 to 250 households. | The most detailed local census counts, such as age, housing, and household makeup for a few streets. |
| Lower layer Super Output Area (LSOA) | A group of four or five Output Areas in England and Wales, with 400 to 1,200 households each. | Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) score, health and education statistic, and most other small-area government data in England and Wales. |
| Data Zone | Scotland's and Northern Ireland's main small area for statistics. It fills the same role as the LSOA. | Small-area statistics in Scotland, including the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, and Northern Ireland census tables. |
| Middle layer Super Output Area (MSOA) | A group of LSOAs, with 2,000 to 6,000 households each in England and Wales. Scotland uses Intermediate Zones and Northern Ireland uses Super Data Zones for the same role. | Neighborhood-level comparisons and estimates, such as small-area income estimates. |
| Local authority district | The council area: a London borough, unitary authority, district, Scottish council area, or Northern Ireland local government district. | Matching addresses to the council that serves them, and to the many datasets published only at council level. |
| Built-up area | The town or city an address sits in, based on land use in England and Wales, or settlement boundaries in Scotland and Northern Ireland. | Grouping addresses by the towns and cities people recognize, which often cross council boundaries. |
| Travel to Work Area (TTWA) | An area where most people who live there also work there, defined from commuting patterns. | Labor market analysis, such as local employment rates, and drawing realistic hiring or customer catchment areas. |
| International Territorial Level (ITL) | The UK's official set of regions at three levels, from nations and English regions (ITL1) down to groups of council areas (ITL3). It replaced the EU's NUTS system in 2021. | Regional comparisons and economic statistics, such as regional GDP. |
| Rural-urban classification | Whether the area is urban or rural, using each nation's official classification. | Comparing urban and rural populations, and checking eligibility for rural funding or policies. |
What data does the UK census append return?
Most geographies return the five keys below. If a geography doesn't apply to a location, the whole geography comes back as null.
name: The published name of the area.gss_code: The Government Statistical Service (GSS) code, the official government code for the area. Use this code to join government statistics to your data.type: What this nation calls this kind of area.vintage: The year of the boundaries. It differs between geographies.source: Which statistical agency published the boundaries.
A few geographies return different keys
Output Area has no
namebecause Output Areas are unnamed. You get the GSS code only.MSOA adds an
alternative_name. In England and Wales, this is the House of Commons Library’s readable name for the area (e.g. “Strand, St James & Mayfair”); it isnullin Scotland and Northern Ireland.Travel to Work Area has no
type, because there is only one kind.International Territorial Level returns
level_1,level_2, andlevel_3, each with a name and a code. ITL codes use their own format (such as TLI for London), not GSS codes.Rural-urban classification returns code and system, because each nation uses its own classification.
How do census geographies differ across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland?
Each nation publishes its own geographies. The JSON keys stay the same everywhere, and type tells you what the area is called in that nation.
| Key | England & Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| output_area | Output Area | Output Area | null |
| lsoa_data_zone | Lower Layer Super Output Area | Data Zone | Data Zone |
| msoa_intermediate_zone | Middle layer Super Output Area | Intermediate Zone | Super Data Zone |
| local_authority_district | London Borough, Metropolitan District, Non-metropolitan District or Unitary Authority (Wales: Unitary Authority) | Council Area | Local Government District |
| built_up_area | Built-up Area | Settlement | Settlement |
Areas in the same field fill the same role but hold different numbers of people. At the 2021 census (2022 in Scotland), an LSOA in England and Wales had about 1,700 residents on average, compared with about 700 in a Scottish Data Zone and about 500 in a Northern Ireland Data Zone. One level up, MSOAs averaged about 8,200 residents, Intermediate Zones about 4,100, and Super Data Zones about 2,200.
When you compare nations, use rates such as percentages instead of raw counts.
How do I join census data to my addresses?
To join a government dataset to your addresses, check the first three characters of the GSS codes in that dataset and match on the field below. For example, if the area codes in a dataset start with E01, join it on the LSOA field.
| England | Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Output Area | E00 | W00 | S00 | null |
| LSOA / Data Zone | E01 | W01 | S01 | N20 |
| MSOA / Intermediate Zone / Super Data Zone | E02 | W02 | S02 | N21 |
What can you do with UK census geographies?
Once your addresses have GSS codes, you can join them to almost any UK dataset published by area. Here are some ways you might use them:
Research and public health: Match customers, patients, or service users to deprivation scores by joining Index of Multiple Deprivation data on the LSOA or Data Zone code.
Retail and site selection: Profile neighborhoods in a location’s catchment area with MSOA-level estimates, such as small-area income, to compare current and prospective sites.
Hiring and workforce planning: Use Travel to Work Areas, drawn from commuting patterns, to see which local labor market an address falls in when planning recruitment.
Charities and public services: Check whether addresses fall in rural areas when assessing eligibility for rural funding or policies.
API
You can request UK census geographies via the API by adding uk-census to the fields parameter (e.g. fields=uk-census).
Full API documentation, including the complete response schema and boundary years for each geography, is available in the API docs.
Spreadsheet uploads
To append this data, select the relevant categories in Step 3 (Data Appends) of the spreadsheet upload process.
Cost
UK geocoding and coordinate lookups cost 1 credit each. The UK census append adds 1 credit per address for all eight geographies, so a UK address with uk-census costs 2 credits in total.
UK access requires a Flex plan or a UK-enabled Unlimited subscription. UK lookups are not available on Pay-As-You-Go.