Developing a National Geodemographic Classification of Workplace Zones
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Developing a National Geodemographic Classification of Workplace Zones Samantha Cockings 1
& David
Martin 1
& Andrew
Harfoot 1
Received: 10 September 2019 / Accepted: 19 February 2020/ # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Geodemographics conventionally refers to the classification of geographical areas based on the socioeconomic characteristics of their residents. In this paper, we develop the novel concept of a classification based on the characteristics of workers and workplaces. The paper describes the implementation of this concept at the small area level for the whole of the UK, which has involved reconciliation of three slightly different national censuses. It presents a summary of the resulting classification (a Classification of Workplace Zones for the UK (COWZUK)) and an innovative validation exercise based on comparison with a very large digital mapping dataset containing specific workplace locations. The openly available classification provides important new insights into the characteristics of workers and workplaces at the small area level across the UK, which will be useful for analysts in a range of sectors, including health, local government, transport and commerce. The generic concept of a classification based on the characteristics of workers and workplaces within a set of workplace zones is transferable to other countries, with refinement to reflect context- and countryspecific phenomena. The concept can be readily implemented by census agencies or other data providers where individual level worker and workplace data are available. Keywords Geodemographics . Classification . Workplace . Workplace zones . Census . UK
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-02009337-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* Samantha Cockings [email protected]
1
Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
C. Samantha et al.
Introduction The conventional definition of geodemographics is “the analysis of people by where they live” (Leventhal 2016 p6), usually by the classification of small areas sharing common socioeconomic characteristics. Geodemographic classification is a powerful and internationally applicable (Singleton and Spielman 2014) data reduction tool which summarises complex multivariate data and is used to assist business location decisions and the delivery of public services. In this paper we develop – and implement on a national scale for the UK – a substantive enhancement to the conventional geodemographics concept by building a classification based on the characteristics of workers and their places of work. The majority of openly available geodemographic classifications have for decades relied on small area data from censuses of population, which enumerate people primarily referenced to their places of residence. Various commercial organisations have combined census and non-census data to produce classifications targeted at different market
