Statistical

	Powys Lower Super Output Areas Powys_LSOA_en.pdf	261 K
	Powys Middle Super Output Areas Powys_MSOA_Map_en.pdf	83 K

Super Output Areas (SOAs) are a new geography developed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to improve reporting on small area data. Super Output Areas (SOAs) were to designed to have similar population sizes and thus give an improved basis for comparisons between areas.   SOAs are not subject to frequent boundary changes, and so are more suitable for comparison over time.  

There are currently two layers of SOA in England and Wales (Lower and Middle layers) plus a third Upper layer  in Wales only, with areas intermediate in size between 2001 Census Output Areas (OAs) and local authorities and each layer nesting inside the layer above.

• Output Area - OAs (around 400 people);
• Lower Super Output Area - LSOAs (around 1,500 people);
• Middle Super Output Area - MSOAs (around 7,500 people);
• Upper Super Output Area - USOAs (around 25,000 people).

This offers a choice of scale for the collection and publication of data, and allows for the release of local data that could be disclosive if published for OAs.

Powys has 4 USOAs, 19 MSOAs and 80 LSOAs.

For more information see the ONS geography website and the Data Unit Wales website.