The 2004 definition of rural areas of England and Wales was a joint project of Defra, the Office for National Statistics, the Countryside Agency and the Welsh Assembly Government. The definition was delivered in its final form by the RERC (Sheffield and Birkbeck).
The Definition
The rural_urban definition consists of different levels of census areas ranging from Census Output Areas, through Super Output Areas to 2003 wards classified by their main settlement type and broader context (sparsity). The data sets in full can be found on the Office for National Statistics website.
The Area Classifications
(a) The 2009 Classifications: Technical Guide Data
(b) The 2005 Classifications and Technical Guides
A classification of local authority districts (LADs) and 2005 Primary Care Trusts for England has been made, combining a typology of urban Census Output Areas and the rural definition for rural Census Output Areas. Populations for these constituent areas are aggregated and classified by settlement type to produce the groups into which the relevant areas fall.
The RERC has also classified 2005 Parliamentary Constituencies for England and Wales and has produced 2001 and 2005 General Election results for this classification.
Note: these boundaries were superceded in 2006 and are given here for research purposes.