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The Census 2001 Rural Urban Classification was updated by the 2011 Rural Urban Classification. The 2001 version has been retained for reference purposes only.

The Rural-Urban Definition was first introduced in 2004 as a joint project between the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC 鈥� formerly the Countryside Agency), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and the Welsh Assembly. It was delivered by the Rural Evidence Research Centre at Birkbeck College (RERC).

The Local Authority (LA) Rural-Urban Classification was introduced in 2005 as a Defra initiative and was delivered by the Rural Evidence Research Centre at Birkbeck College (RERC). Many statistics are only available at Local Authority level so in order to examine rural and urban differences and similarities for these areas, it was necessary to classify the LAs based on their rurality.

Prior to local government reorganisation in 2009, the classification used a slightly different methodology and some local councils were classified differently. Since April 2009, a new methodology was applied both to the new local council structure (326 councils in England) and to the old structure (354 councils).

The 2001 rural urban classification was applied to larger geographies such as councils, parliamentary constituencies and counties. These broadly used the same methodology, based on the proportion of people living in rural settlements and large market towns and the number of people living in urban areas.