3. Super Output Area. SOAs are a unit of geography used in the UK for
statistical analysis. They are developed and released by Neighbourhood
Statistics.SOAs were created with the intention that they would not be
subject to frequent boundary change. This makes SOAs more suitable than
other geography units (such as wards) because they are less likely to change
over time, and thus SOAs are more suitable to change over time analysis.
There are three layers of SOAs (i.e. three different but related
geography boundaries). These are:
- Lower Layer -
Minimum population 1000, mean population 1500. Built from groups of
Output Areas. Commonly known as Lower Layer Super Output Area
(LSOA).There are 34,378 LSOAs in England and Wales.
- Middle Layer -
Minimum population 5000, mean population 7200. Built from Lower Layer
SOAs. Commonly known as Middle Layer Super Output Area and abbreviated
to MSOA. There are 7,193 MSOAs in England
and Wales.
- Upper Layer - Commonly known as Upper Layer Super Output Area (USOA).
Each SOA is identified by a nine character code (for example E01000001).
This code consists of three parts:
- The first letter identifies the country:
- The next two digits indicates the type of SOA layer:
| 01 |
Lower Layer SOA |
| 02 |
Middle Layer SOA |
- The final 6 digits provide a unique tag.
Relevant links:
