Census 2011 - Workplace Zones Centroids

Workplace Zone (WZ) centroids are point features that represent the ‘master postcodes’ for WZs. The centroid, or ‘master postcode’ was selected using an algorithm which calculates the postcode centroid within a WZ which has grid references closest to the worker-weighted centre of the DZ. These centroids / ‘master postcodes’ can be used to link WZs to other (higher level) geographies and produce a 'best-fit' match. They have been created by the National Records of Scotland (NRS), based on the WZ boundaries which were produced on behalf of NRS by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

WZs were a new output geography for Census 2011, initially produced using workplace data from the 2011 Census for England and Wales rather than the UK as a whole. They are designed to supplement the Output Area (OA) and Super Output Area (LSOA and MSOA) / Data Zone (DZ) geographies that were introduced with the 2001 Census, and have been constructed from OAs, or sub-divisions of these called postcode-level building-blocks. While OAs are designed to contain consistent numbers of persons based on where they live, WZs are designed to contain consistent numbers of workers, based on where people work. Following publication of WZs for England and Wales, coverage was subsequently extended to include Scotland and Northern Ireland using 2011 Census data to create a UK set of WZs produced by the ONS on behalf of NRS and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). WZs are designed to be a more suitable output geography for publishing workplace statistics.

工作区（Workplace Zone，WZ）质心为点要素，代表各工作区的“主邮编”。本次选取的质心（即“主邮编”）通过算法计算得出：该算法会在单个工作区内，筛选出网格参考系最接近数据区（Data Zone，DZ）就业人口加权中心的邮编质心。此类质心或“主邮编”可用于将工作区与其他更高层级的地理区域进行关联，并实现“最优匹配”。本数据集由苏格兰国家记录局（National Records of Scotland，NRS）基于英国国家统计局（Office for National Statistics，ONS）为其编制的工作区边界生成。

工作区是2011年人口普查新增的输出地理单元，最初仅基于英格兰和威尔士（而非全英国）的2011年人口普查就业数据编制。其设计初衷是补充2001年人口普查引入的输出区（Output Area，OA）、超级输出区（含低层超级输出区LSOA与中层超级输出区MSOA）及数据区（DZ）地理体系，且由输出区或其拆分出的邮编级基础单元构建而成。输出区的设计依据为居住人口数量保持一致，而工作区则以就业人口数量均匀分布为核心设计目标。在英格兰和威尔士的工作区数据集发布后，后续借助2011年人口普查数据将覆盖范围拓展至苏格兰与北爱尔兰，最终由英国国家统计局（ONS）为苏格兰国家记录局（NRS）及北爱尔兰统计与研究局（Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency，NISRA）编制完成覆盖全英国的工作区数据集。工作区的设计更适合用于发布就业相关统计数据。