LSOAs or Lower Super Output areas are statistical geographies that cover the entirety of England and Wales, in all there are around 33000 LSOAs. They were designed for the Census 2001 as a way to release and present data in a more consistent way at a hyper local level. Each LSOA has a consistent population of between 1000-3000 which enables the comparison of data more easily between different areas.

The issue with them is that they were not given recognisable names when designed – instead they have standard ONS codes (e.g. ‘E01017975’) and schematic names relating to the local authorities where they are located (e.g. ‘Cambridge 001’). This has meant it was difficult to present data at LSOA level in a way that is easy to understand or interpret.

As a result, the Cambridgeshire Policy and Insight team decided that LSOAs could be improved with the addition of a local name that means something to local people! So to solve this problem members of the team came up with a methodology and undertook the process of naming all 395 LSOAs in Cambridgeshire. These names draw upon local landmarks, key roads and compass points within towns, villages and neighbourhoods.

A process of consultation was also undertaken with members of the Communities service in CCC who provided local insight and further refined the dataset. We thank all those that contributed to this process.

The plan now is to integrate the local LSOAs names into all CCC LSOA based interactive reports, maps and dashboards on Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Insight in the near future.