Health Maps Wales is mainly based on Welsh resident data with defined geographic boundaries. Health Maps Wales geographies include:-
Local Health Board of Residence (LHBs): Local Health Boards of Residence are the Welsh Local Health Boards created under NHS reforms (effective as of 1st October 2009). Each Health Board provides both Primary and Secondary care services to their residents. Electoral Divisions, LSOA’s, MSOA’s, USOA’s and local authorities are all nested within the Health Board boundaries.
Local Authorities (LA): Local Authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area. There are 22 Local Authorities in Wales. Electoral Divisions, LSOA’s, MSOA’s, USOA’s are all nested within the local authority boundaries.
Upper Super Output Areas (USOA): USOAs are the upper layer of the statistical geographies based on the 2011 census. USOAs have an approximate average population of 31,000 people. In Wales there are 94 2011 Census USOAs and they are nested within the local authority boundaries.
Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOA): MSOAs are the middle layer of the statistical geographies based on the 2011 census. MSOAs have an approximate average population of 7,000 people and contain between 2,000 and 6,000 households. In Wales there are 410 2011 Census MSOAs and they are nested within the local authority and Upper Super Output Area boundaries
Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOA): LSOA’s are the lower layer in the statistical geographies based on the 2011 census. LSOAs have an approximate average population of 1,500 people and contain between 400 and 1,200 households. In Wales, there are 1,909 2011 Census LSOAs and they are nested within the local authority and MSOA boundaries.
For more information on the Geographies of Wales, visit Office for National Statistics (ONS) Geography Portal. Also, Public Health Wales Observatory have an Interactive Atlas of the Geographies of Wales with a good metadata section, The Geographies of Wales.
Other Geographies:-
The Quality Assurance and Improvement Framework and some of the Cardiovascular Atlas of Variation indicators contain Welsh ‘registered’ data. This is based on the Wales GP registered population and includes Primary Care Cluster information.
Primary Care Cluster boundaries shown are purely notional, and in reality these boundaries are unclear with a small but significant number of individuals being registered with a Primary Care Cluster outside of the displayed geographic boundary. Wales has a population of over 3.1 million individuals distributed over 64 Primary Care Clusters averaging around 50,000 people in each cluster. These 64 “notional” Primary Care Cluster boundaries were derived through the grouping together of Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs), of which there are 1,909 in Wales. These boundaries may not reflect the areas deemed to be covered by each cluster due to the method used to allocate LSOAs to Clusters. The mapping is purely for statistical purposes and has not been agreed nationally as official geography mapping in Wales. Individual GP registration and residence data from the Welsh Demographics Service (WDS) was used to inform the allocation of LSOAs to Primary Care Clusters. LSOAs were assigned to Primary Care Clusters on a first past the post (FPTP) basis, e.g. if LSOA 1 had 80% individuals registered with a Primary Care Cluster in Cluster A and 20% registered with a Primary Care Cluster in Cluster B, LSOA 1 was allocated to Cluster A. Similarly, if LSOA 1 had 40% individuals registered with a Primary Care Cluster in Cluster A, 35% registered with a Primary Care Cluster in Cluster B, and 25% registered with a Primary Care Cluster in Cluster C, LSOA 1 was allocated to Cluster A. This allocation of LSOAs to primary Care Clusters was carried out in 2019.