Rural Urban Classification

The Rural Urban Classification (RUC) from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) categorises areas based on their settlement class and relative access to major settlements. These classifications help to understand how connected residents are to urban centres, influencing access to services, infrastructure, and employment opportunities.

Analysis of Oxfordshire’s RUC can be found in this news post.

The RUC is made up of two measures: settlement class and relative access.

Settlement class

Settlement class is used within the urban/rural classification. It is based on residential address density and is grouped into three categories:

• Urban
• Larger rural
• Smaller rural

This classification is applied to Output Areas (OAs), Lower-layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) and Middle-layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs).

Local Authority Districts (LADs) are classified into four groups based on the proportion of their OA populations that are in rural areas:

• Urban LADs have less than 20% of their population in rural OAs.
• Intermediate urban LADs have between 20% and less than 35% of their population in rural OAs.
• Intermediate rural LADs have between 35% and less than 50% of their population in rural OAs.
• Majority rural LADs have 50% or more of their population in rural OAs.

This measure is not directly comparable with the 2001 or 2011 Rural Urban Classifications, as settlements with populations between 10,000 and 30,000 may have changed from rural to urban due to changes in methodology.

Relative access

Relative access is based on whether an OA is within a 30‑minute drive of a built‑up area of more than 75,000 residents. Areas are split into two categories:

• Further from a major town or city
• Nearer to a major town or city

LADs are classified by the proportion of their OA populations that are nearer to or further from a major town or city:

• LADs with a majority further from a major town or city have at least 50% of their population in OAs further from a major town or city.
• LADs with a majority nearer to a major town or city have less than 50% of their population in OAs further from a major town or city.

This measure replaces the previous “sparse setting” used in earlier RUCs, as over 95% of the UK was classed as not sparse in 2011.

Resources

The 2021 RUC user guide gives a short overview of the methodology. The ONS also publish a more detailed methodology document.

Source: ONS Rural-Urban Classification 2021 (table Local Authority Districts (2024) in EW | Open Geography Portal.