GuideReading the map
Reading the map
Each coloured shape is a small neighbourhood, and its colour shows how much of the chosen thing it has.
Use it
Example
Pick Recorded crime. A shape coloured like the low end of the legend had few crimes per 1,000 residents; one coloured like the high end had many. Set the colour scale to London percentile and an area at the 80th percentile is coloured above four in five London areas, whatever its actual number.
How we calculate it
- The smallest shapes are LSOAs: official 2021 Census areas of roughly 1,000 to 3,000 people.
- Several LSOAs make an MSOA, and MSOAs make a borough.
- Each figure is drawn on the smallest shape its source supports. When the source is coarser, or too few things happened locally, the figure comes from the MSOA or borough instead, and the panel says so.
- Measured values colours each shape by its number against the legend. London percentile colours it by where it sits among all London areas.
- The Compared with London dots work the same way: more dots means more of that thing than most London areas, not better or worse.
The fine print
Personal matching starts at 2021 LSOA level. A metric can move to MSOA or borough when its source is coarser or its local sample is too small; the evidence panel always names that carrier. Streets and buildings are orientation context, while address selection can show recorded property history. We never paint an area statistic onto a street or house as if it had that precision.