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Stirling Council

Local authority for the Stirling Council area

Open data - national records of scotland census 2022 settlement centroids Edit

This dataset is published as Open Data.

2022 Census Settlement:

The 2022 Census Settlement boundaries have been created using the Census 2022 frozen Postcode boundaries.
National Records of Scotland (NRS) create Settlement boundaries by categorising Postcodes as either high or low density. A Postcode was defined as high density if at least one of the following applied:
  • It had more than 2.1 households per hectare.
  • It had more than 0.1 non-residential addresses per hectare; or
  • The Census population per hectare exceeds five people.
The threshold densities were set as they were found to give a good approximation to the built-up areas identified in previous Censuses using traditional methods. The second condition was included such that non-residential parts (e.g. industrial estates) of built-up areas could be identified and included.

An additional rule was implemented from the 2016 (non-Census) version, which stated that any Postcodes which fell within the previous version Settlement boundary(based on centroid point in polygon assignment) would automatically be included in the new Settlement.
The classified Postcodes were then grouped into areas of neighbouring high-density Postcodes, or ‘Settlements’. Areas of low-density Postcodes completely surrounded by the high-density areas (i.e. ‘holes’) were incorporated into the Settlement.

Populations for each area were then calculated, and any settlement with fewer than 500 residents was discarded.

2022 Census Settlement and Locality Centroids

Each population weighted centroid was calculated using a median centroid algorithm, the result of which is less influenced by outliers than the result of an algorithm to calculate the mean centroid. The process for creating Census 2022 Settlements centroids was automated using
ESRI ArcGIS, but the general method is as follows. The median easting and northing coordinate pair for all Census 2022 frozen
Postcodes within the Settlement is calculated, giving a notional centroid of the Settlement. The distance from each of the Postcode centroids to the notional (or median) centroid is calculated using Pythagoras' Theorem. The Postcode coordinate pair with the shortest distance to the median was then chosen to represent the centroid of the Settlement/Locality.

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Additional Info

License UK Open Government Licence v3.0
Category Business and Economy, Council and Government, Housing and Estates, Planning and Development
Maintainer Stirling Council
Date Created 2024-05-21
Date Updated 2024-07-06
Original dataset link https://data-stirling-council.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/stirling-council::open-data-national-records-of-scotland-census-2022-settlement-centroids