Interpreting Connectivity Scores
You may also find user manual, guidance on applying the Connectivity Tool or understanding the data useful.
Explanation
Each location has a connectivity score from 0 to 100. A location’s Connectivity score is calculated as a percentage of the highest score in England and Wales, which is always 100.
To assist in interpreting the Connectivity score, the below tables aim to contextualise the numerical scores by comparison to the Connectivity scores of the population across England and Wales. It’s critical to consider the wider context of locations when interpreting the scores. For example, though a score of 55 may appear relatively low, that could be high for a relatively rural settlement that is not in close proximity to economic centres. Also, given that scores are calculated based on the purpose of travel and by mode of transport, what constitutes a ‘median’ score can vary between the overall score and between the type of destination and mode. Importantly, a score of 50 does not represent a median or average score.
The below tables show the median and each 10th percentile for the overall score, and for each type of destination and mode of transport, across the population.
There are six types of destination, each listed in the first table below; education, leisure and community, health, shopping, residential and workplaces. There are four modes of transport, each listed in the second table below; walking, cycling, public transport and driving. Only the first three of those modes of transport are included in the overall Connectivity score. More information on how Connectivity scores are calculated is included in the methodology .
How to interpret the tables
A location which scores at the 10th percentile means that location is more connected than 10% of Output Areas across England and Wales. Given that Output Areas have similar populations to one another, this means that a score at the 10th percentile is (approximately) more connected than 10% of the (residential) population in England and Wales.
To illustrate: If an area has an overall score of 71, the location would score higher than at least 60% of the population in England and Wales. However, if it had a driving score of 71, the area would be in the bottom 10% of the population in England and Wales for connectivity by driving. Meanwhile, a workplace score of 71 would mean that the location scores higher than at least 80% of the population in England and Wales for connectivity to workplaces. This demonstrates that scores across different types of destination and modes of travel are not comparable and therefore the percentiles should be taken into account when interpreting scores.
By destination
| Overall | Education | Leisure | Health | Shopping | Residential | Workplaces | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | 38.9 | 34.1 | 37.8 | 25.9 | 38.1 | 45.6 | 36.9 |
| 20th percentile | 52.1 | 47.0 | 48.7 | 43.1 | 56.5 | 55.2 | 45.9 |
| 30th percentile | 58.6 | 55.1 | 54.9 | 51.1 | 64.9 | 60.5 | 51.0 |
| 40th percentile | 63.1 | 60.6 | 59.6 | 56.9 | 70.6 | 64.3 | 54.7 |
| Median | 66.8 | 65.0 | 63.6 | 61.7 | 75.2 | 67.3 | 58.0 |
| 60th percentile | 70.2 | 68.9 | 67.5 | 66.1 | 79.3 | 70.2 | 61.1 |
| 70th percentile | 73.7 | 72.8 | 71.7 | 70.3 | 83.4 | 73.5 | 64.4 |
| 80th percentile | 77.8 | 77.1 | 76.8 | 74.9 | 87.4 | 77.4 | 69.1 |
| 90th percentile | 83.2 | 82.7 | 83.3 | 80.6 | 91.6 | 84.6 | 78.8 |
By mode of transport
| Overall | Walking | Cycling | Public transport | Driving | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | 38.9 | 33.7 | 48.4 | 40.7 | 74.6 |
| 20th percentile | 52.1 | 48.0 | 58.1 | 53.5 | 79.8 |
| 30th percentile | 58.6 | 55.5 | 63.1 | 59.7 | 82.6 |
| 40th percentile | 63.1 | 60.7 | 66.7 | 64.2 | 84.5 |
| Median | 66.8 | 64.8 | 69.7 | 67.8 | 86.2 |
| 60th percentile | 70.2 | 68.5 | 72.5 | 71.2 | 87.6 |
| 70th percentile | 73.7 | 72.1 | 75.5 | 74.7 | 89.0 |
| 80th percentile | 77.8 | 76.3 | 78.7 | 79.0 | 90.6 |
| 90th percentile | 83.2 | 81.6 | 83.6 | 85.3 | 92.5 |