DATA: united kingdom: administrative hierarchy

Introduction

The UK frozen 1991 administrative system is hierarchical such that an Enumeration District (or Output Area in Scotland) such as 6017BC10

Enumeration District/Output Area (6017BC10)

falls within a ward 6017BC (AB54 6)

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© Ordnance Survey

which is a component of the larger local authority 6017 (Gordon)

itself, in turn, a component of the larger county 60 (Grampian).

The approximate number of records, and average number of Census households, for each level of the 1991 administrative hierarchy are given below:

Level	Example	Number of records	Average number of Census households
Enumeration District (Output Area in Scotland)	`6017BC10`	151,719	145
Ward	`6017BC`	10,933	2,015
Local Authority	`6017`	459	47,993
County	`60`	67	328,784

Naturally, there is considerable variation around the mean for any given Enumeration District (Output Area in Scotland), ward, local authority or county. This variability is a function of population density.

For example, there are many more Census households in the North London local authority 01AF (74,760 households in Islington) than there are in the sparsely populated rural North of Scotland local authority 6122 (24,507 households in Inverness).