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Social Focus on Urban Rural Scotland 2003

chapter one: Urban Rural Classifications

There are a number of ways of classifying areas as urban and rural. The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) classification is the chief classification used in this publication. One of the attractions of SHS classification is that it allows Scotland's households and people to be viewed on both an urban-rural and accessible-remote basis.

Core and SHS urban rural classifications

The SHS classification builds on one of the most widely used urban classifications in Scotland, the Scottish Executive core classification, that classifies 'settlements' with a population of greater than 3,000 to be urban.

The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) is responsible for the definition of settlements. A simplified methodology is as follows: A postcode is classed as urban if it has more than 2.1 residential addresses per hectare or it has more than 0.1 non-residential addresses per hectare. Once all the urban postcodes have been identified GROS combine neighbouring urban postcodes of more than 210 residential addresses (broadly equivalent to a population of 500) to create a settlement.

The SHS classification is based on the size of these settlements and also how close the settlements are to larger settlements in terms of 'drivetimes'. The full classification is described in Table 1.1.The full classification can be collapsed into the urban rural classification or the accessible remote classification (as set out in Table 1.2). Most analysis within this publication is based on the six fold classification. However, in some instances due to small sample sizes or small numbers of events, the collapsed SHS classifications are used.

There are many other sources of information available but they are not readily available using the SHS classification. Throughout the publication only data which can be presented using the SHS classification are included. The information available by the SHS classification is gradually increasing.

Chart 1.3 maps the results of the classification. The four large urban areas comprising Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow and surrounding built up areas (which constitute the four settlements) are clearly visible. The majority of 'other urban areas' and 'accessible small towns' are situated in the central belt. Most remote small towns and remote rural areas are outwith the Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh triangle. Some of the other urban areas (with a population of 10,000 to 125,000) outwith the central belt include Stranraer, Peterhead, Hawick and Fort William.

Remote small towns (between 3,000 and 10,000 people and with a drive time of over 30 minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more) include Kelso, Kirkwall, Lerwick, North Berwick and Thurso.

Some of the settlements (between 500 and 3000 people) in the Remote Rural areas include Aberfeldy, Aviemore, Portree, Tobermory and Ullapool - although the boundaries of these settlements are not shown.

The SHS classification can be further expanded to an eight-fold classification by taking account of both a 30 and 60-minute drivetime to settlements of 10,000 people or more. This classification provides enhanced information on accessibility. However, some of the resulting areas contain relatively small populations and this has an impact on data availability (particularly from sample surveys). This publication does not include analysis by the eight-fold classification.

It should be noted that the GROS definition of a settlement is based on the threshold of 500 people. Accessible Rural and Remote Rural areas include settlements of between 500 and 3000 people, as well as the people and households living outwith settlements.

GROS also produce localities that are sub-divisions of settlements that are based on 1991 locality boundaries. The localities are sub-divisions of settlements that identify towns and villages that can make up the individual settlements. For example, the Glasgow settle-ment includes Motherwell. This publication does not include analysis by locality.

The council areas with proportionally the largest urban population are Glasgow City, the City of Edinburgh, and Dundee City with over 99 per cent of the population in settlements. Others with at least 98 per cent of the population in settlements are Aberdeen City, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.

Council areas with proportionally the least population in settlements are the three island areas of Eilean Siar, Orkney and Shetland. Mainland council areas with the least population in settlements are Aberdeenshire, Argyll & Bute, Dumfries & Galloway and Highland.

Urban rural classification for council areas

Another widely used definition of rural Scotland is defined on the basis of the population density of council areas. Under this definition, council areas with a population density of less than 1 person per hectare are defined as rural. This definition has the advantage of being clearly understood and one for which there is a substantial amount of data available. A limitation of the definition is that an urban pocket, such as Inverness in the Highlands, is counted as rural. As might be expected, generally, the higher the proportion of the population in settlements in a council area, the more densely populated the council area. This publication does not include any further analysis by council areas.

References

Key Statistics for Council areas and Health Board areas Scotland, General Register Office for Scotland
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosweb/grosweb.nsf/pages/file5/$file/key-stats-chareas.pdf

Scottish Settlements Urban and Rural Areas in Scotland, General Register Office for Scotland
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosweb/grosweb.nsf/pages/scosett

Scottish Household Survey - Bulletin 6, NFO System Three and MORI Scotland, 2001
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/shs/docs/shsb-00.asp

Scottish Economic Statistics 2000, Scottish Executive, ISBN 0 11 497268 0

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