ABSTRACT
The relationship between people and places is a key theme in geographic information system (GIS) analysis and there has been a rapidly increasing number of relevant GIS studies that bring together multiple pieces of socio-economic and demographic data in order to create composite indicators and classifications that summarize the characteristics of residential areas. This chapter provides an overview of two key distinctive approaches to the socio-economic and demographic classification of areas and people namely: the social indicators approach and the geodemographic classification approach. It also provides an overview of some key studies and methods in area classification, ranging from indexes of deprivation to indexes of poverty and wealth, human development and geo-demographic classifications. The chapter demonstrates how the Carstairs index can be calculated and mapped using ArcMap. It presents a conceptually related but methodologically different approach to the development and application of area typologies and classifications of neighbourhoods, widely known as 'geodemographics'.
