Gridded populations for Great Britain

Data from the five British censuses spanning 1971 to 2011 have been rebased onto a temporally consistent 1km gridded geography, enabling analysis of change  over time. As part of the PopChange project both the data, and the software required to grid spatial data in this way data, have been made publicly available.

Initial analyses have been used to show how the centre of population gravity in Great Britain has been drifting towards London over the last four decades; to explore changing patterns of ethnic and religious segregation over time; and to explore aspects of urban sprawl. 

The PopChange data and software can be accessed via the PopChange website: https://popchange.liverpool.ac.uk/ 

Lloyd, C. D., Catney, G., Williamson, P., & Bearman, N. (2017). Exploring the utility of grids for analysing long term population change. COMPUTERS ENVIRONMENT AND URBAN SYSTEMS, 66, 1-12. doi:10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2017.07.003