Official Statistics
Rural geographies
A guide to rural geography and defining other geographies as rural.
Documents
PDF, 70.2 KB, 1 page
This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.
Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email
defra.helpline@defra.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.
PDF, 48.2 KB, 1 page
This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.
Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email
defra.helpline@defra.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.
MS Excel Spreadsheet, 36.5 KB
This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.
Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email
defra.helpline@defra.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.
MS Excel Spreadsheet, 167 KB
This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.
Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email
defra.helpline@defra.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.
PDF, 357 KB, 6 pages
This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.
Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email
defra.helpline@defra.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.
MS Excel Spreadsheet, 104 KB
This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.
Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email
defra.helpline@defra.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.
MS Excel Spreadsheet, 38 KB
This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.
Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email
defra.helpline@defra.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.
Details
There are two ways of classifying areas as rural or urban. The preferred approach is to use the rural urban definition, which is applied to census geographies.
Where information is not available at this level, the rural urban classification is applied to larger geographies such as councils, parliamentary constituencies and counties.
There are a number of other geographies to which a rural urban classification has been applied. These broadly use the same methodology as that which underpins the local council rural urban classification, based on the proportion of people living in rural settlements and large market towns and the number of people living in urban areas.
There are rural urban classifications available for Primary Care Organisations, parliamentary constituencies, NUTS3 statistical territories and a range of higher geographies including police, fire and waste authorities, counties and National Parks.
Updates to this page
Published 24 March 2011