It provides an indication of the characteristics of areas, and the ways in which they differ from each other. ONS previously published a classification in 1996, based on 37 socio-economic and demographic variables from the 1991 Census. Since the original classification was produced, there have been substantial changes to the number, structure and boundaries of local and health authorities. The revised classification is produced for authorities as they existed at April 1999, using the same data and methodology as the original classification. It produces two sets of results, first it identifies for each local and health authority, corresponding or most similar authorities and secondly it groups authorities into Families, Groups and Clusters by measuring similarities across the classification variables.
More information is contained in the paper report.
This report, a self-contained and complete source, includes the methods and results, full colour maps showing geographic patterns and 42 pen portraits of the Families, Groups and Clusters. All tables in the report are available electronically on diskette, priced 15, also from ONS Direct.