England and Wales: East/West Divide by population

29 comments
  1. In your previous map you’ve excluded Wales but here it is included. Did you do that just to balance London better?

  2. The original north/south map was only for England. If you excluded Wales, your east/west border would shift towards the east.

    District level might be more accurate than county, looking at North Yorkshire in particular.

  3. If combining the previous map, showing the North / South divide, with the data in this map, the wonderful Malvern Hills, which until now were in the South West Midlands, are now in the North West of England. Marvellous.

  4. It shows just how lop-sided the country is, that the dividing line has been tilted for a neater result (for example, even Edinburgh is further west than Bristol).

    That said, it’d be interesting to see a version with a vertical divider.

  5. A bit more central this time. I suppose the eastern half really only has London, but the west has loads of moderately sized cities.

  6. Ah, but it’s not actually ‘by population’ is it? It’s ‘by **county** population’, which is why we have the obvious anomaly of Leeds being designated as ‘West’ when it’s clearly further to the East of the notional boundary line than the East-designated Sheffield. (Still with me? Keep up, it’ll be on the test.)

    All of which suggests that ‘by county’ is too gross/blunt a definition.

    It’d therefore be extremely interesting to see the data re-cast at a finer grain, not necessarily right down to Output Area but perhaps at MSOA. (‘Ward’ would be only very slightly better in terms of grain, but that would take us closer to ‘Party politics’ territory and thus would probably cause the bantz to degenerate to a far less entertaining/enjoyable sort of tribalism than this and the North/South map have provided so far).

    And then re-draw the trend line (ie the notional boundary line).

    And then re-cast the North/South data and corresponding trend/boundary line…

    …and then merge the two sets/maps together…

    …aaaaand you’ve then given us the definitive NESW quadrant split…

    …which would then put this subject to bed for ever, and so this sub could concentrate on the really important stuff like…oh, I dunno…Looking At Photos Of Americans’ English Breakfasts…

    …which would mean that you’ve probably won the Internet [UK edition] and could thus retire on a gold-plated, defined-benefit, index-linked Reddit pension, and you’d be carried shoulder-high by a grateful, cheering nation, and the sky would be black with hats.

    Might sound like a lot of work on the ‘puter, but the rewards are self-evident surely?

  7. So which town is closest to the centre of England? if you overlay both maps, which town is closest to where the lines cross?

    Litchborough seems to be the nearest village.

    Towcester the nearest market town.

    Daventry and Northampton are the nearest towns.

    Milton Keynes is the nearest city.

  8. I now live in Hampshire, pubs here don’t sell enough cider to be west. Typical cider menu is Strongbow (out of stock) and Rekorderlig (£6). That is all.

  9. At some point, would this “border” have roughly correlated with lands under English control, versus lands under British control. Maybe around the late 6th century?

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