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Scottish Settlements Urban and Rural Areas in Scotland

Annex C - The Methodology for 2000

The method

5. The method is a development of that used to create 1991 localities and, similarly, has two stages. The first is to identify 'urban' postcodes and the second is to group these into settlements retaining those groups with more than a given number of addresses. The 1999/2 version of the postcode index and boundaries (see paragraph 4 of Annex A) was used to investigate what density thresholds should be used in the general rule below (and variations from the rule). By the time these investigations were complete the 2000/1 version of the postcode products were available. The density thresholds were accordingly applied to the 2000/1 version of the postcode and boundaries to create the settlements described in this paper.

• Identifying 'urban' postcodes - the general rule

• Non-standard threshold for density of addresses

• Urbanisation of rural areas

• Identifying settlements, combining them, filling 'holes' and discarding small ones

• Calculating the population of each settlement

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