Last update: 01-11-2021
This R package provides a coherent hierrachy of boundaries about most geographical areas in the UK. All boundaries, apart from WPZ-Workplace Zone, are built on top of the minimal OA Output Area object (or SA Small Area as they are called in N.Ireland). This means that some of the maps that you draw upon them are only a geographical approximation of the corresponding developed by the ONS (notice though that not all the boundaries found in the package are developed or shared by the ONS).
The package is not on CRAN (it can't be due to its size).
You can instead install this package from github as:
# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github('lvalnegri/dmpkg.bnduk')
Notice that because of the mass of information contained the package file is actually quite big (>250Mb), and it'll take a while for download and installation.
The files included in this R package are now all of class sf, simplified at 20% (rmapshaper::ms_simplify), with the CRS transformed to WGS84, World Geodetic System 1984 (epsg:4326) for easier web interactive mapping using the leaflet package as basis.
All boundaries, but OA and WPZ, are obtained either as the dissolution (rmapshaper::ms_dissolve) or as a point in polygon (sf::st_join with sf::st_within) operation of the union (sf::st_union) of the original national OA boundaries (detailed below), in the former case using the OA lookups table built in the dmpkg.geouk package. This implies that these boundaries, while adequate for statistical purposes, do not precisely comply with ONS geographical specifications.
Besides the geography component, all objects contain only the ONS codes.
They are related to, and assume the name of, the following UK Geographies, split up by categories (for more details, see the locations_types table built in the dmpkg.geouk package).
- OA. UK 2011 (stable). GB: [E00-S00-W00] 2011 Census Output Area (OA); NIE: [N00] 2011 Census Small Area (SA)
- LSOA. UK 2011 (stable). ENG, WLS: [E01-W01] 2011 Census Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA); SCO: [S01] 2011 Census Data Zone (DZ); NIE: [95] 2011 Census Small Output Area (SOA)
- MSOA. GB 2011 (stable). ENG, WLS: [E02-W02] 2011 Census Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA); SCO: [S02] 2011 Census Intermediate Zone (IZ)
- LAD. UK MAY-21. ENG: [E06] Unitary Authority (UA), [E07] Non-Metropolitan District (MD), [E08] Metropolitan District (MD), [E09] London Borough (LB); WLS: [W06] Unitary Authority (UA); SCO: [S12] Council Area (CA), NIE: [N09] Local Government District (LGD)
- CTY. ENG MAY-21. [E10] County (CTY), [E11] Metropolitan County (MCTY), [E13] Inner And Outer London (IOL) (plus [E06] Unitary Authority (UA) are recoded as
[E069]for completeness in the hierarchy) - RGN. ENG (stable). [E12] Region (RGN)
- CTRY. UK (stable). [E92] Country (CTRY)
- WPZ. UK 2011 (stable). [E33-N19-S34-W35] 2011 Census Workplace Zone (WPZ)
- PCS. UK NOV-21. Postcode Sector (built as a Point in Polygon operation between Postcode Units and Output Areas)
- PCD. UK NOV-21. Postcode District
- PCT. UK NOV-21. Post Town
- PCA. UK NOV-21. Postcode Area
- PCON. UK DEC-20. [E14-N06-S14-W07] Westminster Parliamentary Constituency
- WARD. UK DEC-20. [E05-N08-S13-W05] Electoral Ward
- CED. ENG MAY-21. [E58] Electoral County
- TTWA. UK 2011 (stable). [E30-N12-S22-W22] Travel to Work Area. There are also six cross-border areas [K01]
- MTC. EW 2015 (stable). [J01] Major Towns and Cities
- BUA. EW 2015 (stable). [E34-W34] Built-up Area Sub-division. There are also six cross-border areas [K05]
- BUAS. EW 2015 (stable). [E35-W38] Built-up Area. There are also six cross-border areas [K06]
- PAR. UK DEC-20. ENG: [E04] Civil Parish (PAR), [E43] Non-Civil Parished Area (NCP); WLS: [W04] Community; SCO: [ ] Civil Parish 1930
- PFN. UK NOV-20. ENW: [ ] Police Force Neighborhood (built as a best fit between Output Areas and Police Neighborhood). S: Correspond to WARD.
- PFA. UK NOV-20. [E23-N23-S23-W15] Police Force Area
- FRA. EW DEC-19. ENG: [E31-W25] Fire and Rescue Authorities
- CSP. EW DEC-19. [E22-W14] Community Safety Partnership
- LPA. UK APR-20. [E60-N13-S44-W43] Local Planning Authorities
- RGD. EW APR-19. [E28-W20] Registration Districts
- LRF. EW DEC-19. [E48-W41] Local Resilience Forums
- CCG. UK. ENG: [E38] Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG); WLS: [W11] Local Health Board (LHB); SCO: [S03] Community Health Partnership (CHP); NIE: [ZC] Local Commissioning Group (LCG)
- STP. ENG. [E54] Sustainability and Transformation Partnership
- NHSO. ENG. [E39] NHS Local Office (formerly Local Area Team)
- NHSR. ENG. [E40] NHS Region
- CIS. ENG DEC-20. [J06] Covid Infection Survey
- England and Wales: browse to COA Boundaries and download the Generalised Clipped boundaries shapefile. The Coordinate Reference System (CRS) is British National Grid, OSGB_1936 (epsg:27700). There has been an update to the files on the 23rd/24th July 2020.
- Scotland: open the web page 2011 Census Geography and download the 2011 Output Area Boundaries, Clipped to the coastline zip file. The CRS is the same epsg:27700 as England and Wales.
- Northern Ireland (properly called small areas): go to NISRA Geography and download the ESRI Shapefile format zip file. The CRS is Irish Grid, GCS_TM65 (epsg:29902).
- England and Wales: browse to Workplace Zones Boundaries and download the Generalised Clipped boundaries shapefile. The CRS is British National Grid, OSGB_1936 (epsg:27700). There has been an update to the files on the 10th Feb 2021.
- Scotland: open the web page 2011 Census Geography and download the Workplace Zones 2011 Scotland Boundaries zip file. The CRS is the same epsg:27700 as England and Wales.
- Northern Ireland: go to NISRA Geography and download the ESRI Shapefile format zip file. The CRS is Irish Grid, GCS_TM65 (epsg:29902).
- Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights [2021]
- Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database rights [2021]
- Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0
- Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
- Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database rights [2021]
- (NI only) Contains or is based upon Land & Property Services (LPS) Intellectual Property subject to Crown copyright [License]