Table 2. CSO rural–urban typology Type... | Emerald Publishing

Table 2.

CSO rural–urban typology

Type	Definition
Urban areas
Cities	Towns/settlements with populations greater than 50,000
Satellite urban towns	Towns/settlements with populations between 1,500 and 49,999, where 20% or more of the usually resident used population’s workplace address is in “Cities”
Independent urban towns	Towns/settlements with populations between 1,500 and 49,999, where less than 20% of the usually resident employed population’s workplace address is in “Cities”
Rural areas
Rural areas with high urban influence	Rural areas (themselves defined as having an area type with a population less than 1,500 persons, as per census 2016) are allocated to one of three sub-categories, based on their dependence on urban areas Again, employment location is the defining variable. The allocation is based on a weighted percentage of resident used adults of a rural small area who work in the three standard categories of urban area (for simplicity the methodology uses main, secondary and minor urban area). The percentages working in each urban area were weighted through the use of multipliers. The multipliers allowed for the increasing urbanisation for different sized urban areas. For example, the percentage of rural people working in a main urban area had double the impact of the same percentage working in a minor urban area. The weighting acknowledges the impact that a large urban centre has on its surrounding area The adopted weights for: Main urban areas is 2 Satellite urban communities is 1.5 Independent urban communities is 1 The weighted percentages is divided into tertials to assign one of the three rural breakdowns
Rural areas with moderate urban influence
Highly rural/remote areas

Type	Definition
Urban areas
Cities	Towns/settlements with populations greater than 50,000
Satellite urban towns	Towns/settlements with populations between 1,500 and 49,999, where 20% or more of the usually resident used population’s workplace address is in “Cities”
Independent urban towns	Towns/settlements with populations between 1,500 and 49,999, where less than 20% of the usually resident employed population’s workplace address is in “Cities”
Rural areas
Rural areas with high urban influence	Rural areas (themselves defined as having an area type with a population less than 1,500 persons, as per census 2016) are allocated to one of three sub-categories, based on their dependence on urban areasAgain, employment location is the defining variable. The allocation is based on a weighted percentage of resident used adults of a rural small area who work in the three standard categories of urban area (for simplicity the methodology uses main, secondary and minor urban area). The percentages working in each urban area were weighted through the use of multipliers. The multipliers allowed for the increasing urbanisation for different sized urban areas. For example, the percentage of rural people working in a main urban area had double the impact of the same percentage working in a minor urban area. The weighting acknowledges the impact that a large urban centre has on its surrounding areaThe adopted weights for:Main urban areas is 2Satellite urban communities is 1.5Independent urban communities is 1The weighted percentages is divided into tertials to assign one of the three rural breakdowns
Rural areas with moderate urban influence
Highly rural/remote areas

Source: CSO (2019)