Neighbourhoods and 'middle layer super output areas' (MSOAs)

Some thoughts, overlaying and comparisons from Data for Action and Citizen Network's work in Sheffield.

😴 If you're not in the mood for the longer flow of words below, here's an interactive map of the 147 neighbourhoods in Sheffield alongside the different MSOAs in the city...

❓ 'What the %&£! are MSOAs and who cares?', you might be thinking. Good question.

🗺️ When the UK government or other organisations collect certain data from or about people (e.g. the Census) it knows where the data came from by using things like your address. If, for example, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) then wants to analyse the data to understand which places experience certain things, it places boundaries around small geographical areas called 'output areas', which bundle up the information relating to that patch (approximately 40 to 250 households in each).

🧩 These small areas can then be mapped and can start to tell some stories about those places, as well as how they compare to each other. Sometimes, an analysis doesn't need to be at such a small level of geographical detail, so you can bundle things up another layer to 'lower level super output areas' (LSOAs) and then MSOAs (and then on to others too). MSOAs - with relatable and catchy names like 'Sheffield 028' - are often used in policy circles as proxies for neighbourhoods.

😱 If you really want to scramble your brain with how this all works, see here.

✅ You might still be asking, 'so what?'. Collecting certain (and, some might say, very limited) data about these areas leads to decisions being made about these areas by layers of government and other funding sources. Where is prioritised and for what? Which bits of what town get the resources? And, frequently, where is bad stuff happening through the deficit-focused lens?

💥 And herein lies the heart of this: who is defining these boundaries, what is being collected and how do they relate to people's day to day experiences? If these things don't align, what does it mean for how decisions are made with - and/or perceived by - citizens? These things might have fairly significant repercussions for people's quality of life, how we have meaningful neighbourhood level conversations and for decision makers politically too. So, it seems in everyone's interest that we give this some thought.

💬 Perhaps unsurprisingly, we don't have all the answers to this. But a couple of things from our work in Sheffield stand out and pave the way for a conversation…

🔎 There are 147 neighbourhoods that emerged through the initial phase of the mapping project. That's approximately half of the number of LSOAs in the city (345). It's also approximately twice as many MSOAs in the city (76). This seems to suggest that the natural fit for a neighbourhood in Sheffield lies somewhere between two of the common ways decisions are being made. Furthermore, as the image at the top represents, some MSOAs straddle multiple named neighbourhoods, while others are slightly more aligned with single neighbourhood boundaries. The map also leads us to think about less densely populated areas on the edge of the city, where both MSOAs and neighbourhoods become larger in terms of area.

For us, this is what we an example of what we mean by ‘maps as conversations’.