Northern Ireland Output Areas

Output Areas (OAs) were introduced in Northern Ireland after the 2001 Census. Output Areas were built from clusters of adjacent postcodes. Output Areas themselves nest within the 582 Electoral Wards in Northern Ireland and were designed to have similar population sizes of around 125 households and 350 people, they are also as socially similar as possible. Output Areas in Northern Ireland are based on postcodes as of January 2000. There are 5022 OAs in Northern Ireland.