Middle Layer Super Output Areas (December 2011) Boundaries for England and Wales

Four vector boundary sets for Middle Layer Super Output Areas in England and Wales as of 31 December 2011. The Office for National Statistics provides full-extent, coastline-clipped, and generalised versions ranging from 2 MB to 191 MB file sizes. Contains Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

Use Cases

• Create thematic maps of census statistics based on MSOA boundaries.
• Analyze demographic patterns at a consistent administrative geography level.
• Perform spatial joins with other datasets using the provided boundary geometries.
• Generate simplified visualizations for reports using the generalised (20m) or super generalised (200m) versions.

Strengths

• Provides four distinct boundary versions for different use cases, including full-extent and coastline-clipped.
• File sizes are explicitly listed, ranging from 2 MB to 191 MB, indicating data scale.
• Contains authoritative intellectual property from both Ordnance Survey and the Office for National Statistics.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is specific to a single snapshot date (31 December 2011), limiting temporal analysis.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics

Time Range

As at 31 December 2011

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:33:25.826101; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England and Wales