Editing GSS coding system (section)

== Geography of the UK Census ==
Information from the [[United Kingdom Census 2011|2011 Census]] is published for a wide variety of geographical units.  These areas include:

* [[County#United Kingdom|Counties]] in England
* [[District#United Kingdom|Districts]] within English counties, and [[unitary authority]] areas (where one council provides district and county functions)
* Unitary council areas in [[Wales]], [[Scotland]], and [[Northern Ireland]]
* [[Civil parishes in England|Civil parishes]] ([[Community (Wales)|communities]] in Wales)
* Electoral [[Wards of the United Kingdom|wards]] (electoral divisions in Wales).  These areas are defined for the election of local councillors, but are also widely used for presenting statistics at a smaller scale than the whole district.
* Census output areas (OA), the smallest unit for which census data are published. They were initially generated to support publication of [[United Kingdom Census 2001|2001 Census]] outputs and contain at least 40 households and 100 persons, the target size being 125 households.  They were built up from [[postcode]] blocks ''after'' the census data were available, with the intention of standardising population sizes, geographical shape and social homogeneity (in terms of dwelling types and housing tenure).  The OAs generated in 2001 were retained as far as possible for the publication of outputs from the [[United Kingdom Census 2011|2011 Census]] (less than 3% were changed<ref>{{cite web|title=Output Areas|url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/geography/beginner-s-guide/census/output-area--oas-/index.html|publisher=ONS}}</ref>). Before 2001, census data was published for larger Enumeration Districts (ED) which were delineated before the census was conducted and were the organisational units for census data collection.