Kent Output Areas and Super Output Areas
Output Areas (OAs)
An Output Area (OA) is the smallest unit of geography, developed
by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), to output census data.
They were developed for the first time to output 2001 Census data
and the boundaries have not been changed since.
In the Kent County Council area there are a total of 4,439
OAs.
OAs can be used individually or combined as building blocks to
present information for settlements which are smaller than a ward,
or bespoke areas.
The ONS have a desire to make more data available between
censuses for areas smaller than a ward. Typically any data sets
released between censuses are currently released at ward level but
at this level local variations are not apparent. Releasing
information at sub-ward level will allow these local variations to
be identified. However, when releasing information for a small
area, such as an OA, care must be taken to protect the identity of
the individual. Measures were put in place to ensure that this was
not a problem for the 2001 Census output, but for many of the data
sets released between the censuses, such as a benefit claimants,
this could be a particular problem. To avoid disclosure, but to
also allow data to be released for areas smaller than a ward, the
ONS have developed Super Output Area (SOAs).
Super Output Areas (SOAs)
SOAs are aggregations of OAs. In time, SOAs will replace the
electoral ward as a unit of statistical output. There are three
layers of SOAs:
- Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) - smallest areas
- Middle Super Output Areas (MSOAs)
- Upper Super Output Areas (USOAs) - largest areas
The aim is for the bulk of data to be released at LSOA level.
Where this would be disclosive, data would be released for a higher
layer SOA.
Unlike wards and parishes, SOAs do not have names - they are
referred to with alpha-numeric codes. By using the SOA code alone
it is difficult to identify the location of a SOA. We have created
a number of SOA
reference maps for both LSOAs and MSOAs, to help identify the
locality which is covered by each SOA.
More information on SOAs is available from the Office National
Statistics.