Geodemographics and Classifying Areas

The technique of geodemographics originates from social area research in British and North American universities, in and around the 1960s. It has become one of geography’s most successful intellectual products, having been in widespread applied use within commercial and public planning contexts for over 30 years. Despite this, a comprehensive scholarly treatment of the topic is hard to find, if not impossible. Prolonged ‘explosions’ in the availability of small area geographic data of various types, together with the means for efficient processing of such data, means that the techniques of geodemographics are accessible to a much wider audience than previously. For example, whereas users previously required expensive licences in order to create classifications from the UK census, this data is now freely available to users. A Masters student with a reasonable background in quantitative methods is quite capable of creating a classification system for a particular purpose or geographic region. This book will provide the reader with background information on geodemographics, a real academic context for work on geodemographics and area classification, information on how to practically create a system and the issues surrounding this, information on linking demographics to mapping in a practical way, detailed accounts of current work, and a future agenda for geodemographics.