Output Areas and Super Output Areas

From Norfolk RCC

If you are trying to provide information on an area then a simple prerequisite is some way to geographically describe that area. The problem with many common descriptions such as counties, districts, parishes, wards etc. is that they vary significantly is geographical size and population; they are also not static and prone to periodic changes. This is a problem because it becomes impossible to make comparisons between areas or even the same area over time. Output Areas (OAs) and Super Output Areas (SOAs) were designed to overcome this by creating static geographical units of approximately equal population. Each SOA contains approximately 1,500 people and is made up of roughly five OAs of 300 people each.