Geography for official statistics

Geography plays an important role in the production of official statistics. This page includes information about how geography is used for official statistics in Scottish Government, along with resources to support statistics producers.

How we use geography in official statistics

Scottish Government official statistics are produced in accordance with the Government Statistical Service (GSS) Geography Policy.

This GSS Geography Policy provides information on:

• accurately and consistently referencing statistics geographically
• maximising the comparability of statistics
• minimising the impact of changing area boundaries on statistical outputs
• standardising how geography is defined, used and presented
• meeting legal requirements to safeguard the confidentiality of statistics

A beginners guide to UK geography has been produced by the Office for National Statistics.

Scottish Code Register

In line with the GSS Geography Policy, the Scottish Government maintains a register of geography codes for Scotland. Maintenance of the register is supported by a coding and naming policy.

• Geography Code Register for official statistics
• Coding and naming policy for statistical geographies in Scotland

Statistical building blocks

The GSS Geography Policy recommends that statistics producers use ‘statistical building blocks’ to produce statistics at higher level geographies. In Scotland the statistical building blocks are Census Output Areas and Data Zones and Intermediate Zones.

Statistical geographies and classifications

The following statistical geographies and geography classifications are maintained by the Scottish Government:

• Small area statistics (Data Zones and Intermediate Zones) 2022
• Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification 2022
• Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020
• Scottish Island Regions 2023

A range of other geographies maintained by other organisations are also commonly used in the production of official statistics. A useful summary of common geographies is provided by National Records of Scotland.

Spatial Data

The Scottish Government publishes spatial data and metadata on its spatial data platform. The platform contains spatial data provided by Scottish public sector organisations.

Further resources

National Records of Scotland geography products

A range of geography products to support the production of official statistics are published by National Records of Scotland.

ONS Open Geography Portal

Materials used to support UK wide statistics, for example, International Territorial Levels and Workplace Zones, are published by the Office for National Statistics on its Open Geography Portal.