Classification of Workplace Zones for the UK – about the area classifications

The Classification of Workplace Zones was initially produced by the University of Southampton for England and Wales following the creation of Workplace Zones for the 2011 Census. Workplace Zones are a small-area geography designed to contain a consistent number of workers allowing workplace statistics to be released at a more granular level. More recently Office for National Statistics (ONS) has created a Scottish and Northern Irish set of Workplace Zones so the coverage has now been expanded to the whole of the UK.

Workplace Zones (WZs) are the only level of geography available as, unlike Output Areas, there is no hierarchical structure. There are 60,709 Workplace Zones in the UK.

In England and Wales they are designed to align with Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs) providing continuity with the residential-based geographies. In Scotland they do not align with Intermediate Zones (Scottish equivalent of MSOAs) and there are no MSOAs in Northern Ireland. However, WZs, OAs and SOAs all align with local authorities.

The area classification consists of two layers. These are Supergroups (higher layer) and Groups (lower layer). Please note it is a hierarchical structure with 29 groups nesting within seven Supergroups.