In 2004 the RERC produced a paper for Defra entitled ‘Social and Economic Change and Diversity in Rural Areas’ which was a first look at rural change across England using data from the 2001 Census and other sources. The paper covered such matters as population change, income and earnings, employment and economic activity and a number of indicators of social disadvantage.
The geographical basis for the analyses was English local authority districts classified according to the prevailing rural definition – sometimes called the ‘Tarling’ definition - which divided England into rural/urban and accessible/non-accessible districts (see Countryside Agency).
Since the publication of this document a clearer, more detailed, classification of local authority districts into urban and rural types has been produced and new data have been published. Defra has also defined 76 local authority districts as having low economic productivity. 44 of these are ‘Indicator Districts’ used to assess progress towards Defra’s PAS4 (Productivity) target. A Defra paper on rural productivity can be found here, whilst further information on the definition of Indicator Districts can be found here.
The analyses presented on this site represent an up-date of the earlier document based upon the ward and the district levels of the new rural definition/classification. They were carried out as background for further studies of the geography of rural productivity. Documents are in the form of .pdf versions of Powerpoint presentations for England and its regions, which include the data tables from which the graphics are constructed.
