Sparsely Populated Areas: Scottish Data Zone classification

A classification of Scotland's Data Zones (2011 Census version), identifying those classified as sparsely populated: places where it is estimated that less than 10,000 people lived within 30 minutes' travel in 2011. This definition has been used in a body of research at the James Hutton Institute on demographic change: a previous version of the SPA, calculated for Output Areas, was developed and used in population projections (Copus and Hopkins, 2018: https://www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/research/srp2016-21/RD3.4.1%20Note%20WP1-3%20web%20-%20published.pdf) and this version has been used in further modelling of population change (Hopkins et al., 2022: https://www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/research/srp2016-21/rd341prospectsdemographicrecoveryinspas.pdf). 

Further details of the calculation of the Sparsely Populated Areas geography, including raw data and software used, are contained in Hopkins and Piras (2020/2022: https://www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/research/srp2016-21/rd341briefprojectionsandforesightintro.pdf).

The dataset contains four fields: 

DataZone: standard code representing each Data Zone

LOCALAUTHORITY: the local authority/council area which the Data Zone is in

PP: the estimated number of people living within 30 minutes' travel in 2011. This was calculated for Data Zones outside large settlements (those with a population of 20,000 or more), only. 

SPAFLAG: a two-fold classification showing whether Data Zones are defined as sparsely populated or not.