GSS codes are nine-character geocodes maintained by the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics (ONS) to represent a wide range of geographical areas of the UK, for use in tabulating census and other statistical data. GSS refers to the Government Statistical Service of which ONS is part.
7-451: GSS codes replaced a previous system called ONS codes from January 2011. ONS codes were hierarchical whereas in GSS codes there is no relation between the code for a lower-tier area and the corresponding parent area. GSS codes have a fixed length code of nine characters. The first three characters indicate the level of geography, and the six digits following define the individual unit. For example,
14-836: A unitary authority or two-tier county and district. Local government wards had a two-letter code within their local authority, and census output area an additional four digits within a ward. The authority and ward codes were recognised by Eurostat as local administrative unit code levels 1 and 2 within the NUTS system. An overlapping system encoded civil parish areas. Parishes were represented by an additional three digits within their local authority: The codes for counties and districts were as follows. Also showing NUTS(3) codes thus: (UKH12) These codes became active following local government changes in 1986. These codes became active following local government changes in 1986. These codes became active following local government changes
21-543: A population of 7,200. The hierarchy of Output Areas and the two tiers of Super Output Areas have become known as the Neighbourhood Statistics Geography. MSOAs use the name of the local or unitary authority followed by three digits, for example "Tower Hamlets 022" which is E02000885 . LSOAs use the name of the containing MSOA followed by a letter, for example "Tower Hamlets 022C" which is E01004304 . Some LSOAs and MSOAs were revised in alignment with
28-566: The 2021 Census . The older ONS code was constructed top down: ONS coding system The ONS coding system was a hierarchical code used in the United Kingdom for tabulating census and other statistical data. ONS refers to the Office for National Statistics . It was replaced by the GSS coding system on 1 January 2011. The code was constructed top down from a four character code representing
35-525: The Royal Borough of Greenwich is coded as E09000011 , Middlesbrough is E06000002 , Cambridge E07000008 and Fenland E07000010 . As of December 2022, the meanings of some common three character prefixes are as follows: In 2019, the House of Commons Library proposed names instead of numeric codes for MSOAs to make them easier to use. A full listing of GSS names and codes may be found by following
42-480: The link to ONS Geography's Code History Database, below. Information from the 2011 Census is published for a wide variety of geographical units. These areas include: Super Output Areas (SOAs) are a set of geographical areas developed following the 2001 Census, initially to facilitate the calculation of the Indices of Deprivation 2004 and subsequently for a range of additional Neighbourhood Statistics (NeSS). The aim
49-477: Was to produce a set of areas of consistent size, whose boundaries would not change (unlike electoral wards), suitable for the publication of data such as the Indices of Deprivation. They are an aggregation of adjacent Output Areas with similar social characteristics. Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) typically contain 4 to 6 OAs with a population of around 1,500. Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs) on average have
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