Terms explained
Administrative Data
Data collected in the day to day operations of government departments, local authorities, businesses, voluntary organisations, etc.
Census
Census refers to a complete count of the population of interest (as opposed to a sample). In the United Kingdom a census of the entire population is taken every ten years – the last was in 2001 and the next is in 2011.
Community
The Welsh equivalent of Parish.
Employed, unemployed and inactive
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions for “employed”, “unemployed” and “inactive” are quite detailed and are explained more fully in the LABORSTA International definitions.
Government Office Regions
Apply to England only. The country is divided up into 9 administrative regions.
Inactive
See Employed, unemployed and inactive.
Local Authority Areas
There are five types of local authorities in England and Wales.
NEETS
An acronym for 16–18 year olds who are “Not in Education, Employment or Training”.
Output area
The smallest units for which data are available. Output Areas are subdivisions of 2003 wards and each contains approximately 125 households (300 residents). Very little data is available at this level.
Parish
Parishes are the most local administrative areas in England and Wales (where they are referred to as communities), and often have a parish council with a range of duties. Approximately 40 percent of the population of England and Wales live in parishes or communities.
Super output area
Super output areas (SOAs) are aggregations of output areas.
Survey
Balanced samples of the population are asked questions on a variety of topics. The results are scaled up to represent the whole population.
Unemployed
See Employed, unemployed and inactive.
Ward
Electoral wards (electoral divisions in Wales and the Isle of Wight) are the base unit of UK administrative geography, being the areas from which local authority councillors are elected.
Working Age
Until August 2010 “Working Age” was defined as 16–64 for males and 16–59 for females.
In August 2010 the definition was changed to take account of the change in the State Pension age (SPA) for females. Although the female SPA is increasing on a sliding scale, from August 2010 the definition of “Working Age” became 16–64 for males and females for statistical purposes.