Profile of Rural Somerset with Mosaic

What is Mosaic?

Mosaic, developed by Experian, classifies every UK household into one of 15 distinct ‘groups’, from which 63 sub-groups (‘types’) are also derived. These classifications describe households in terms of their typical demographics, their behaviours, lifestyle characteristics, attitudes and how they like to interact with organisations or services. They identify groups of households that are as similar as possible to each other, and as different as possible from any other group.  For convenience, groups and types have basic descriptive names, such as ‘Village Retirement’, ‘Satellite Settlers’ and ‘Bus-Route Renters’.

This section builds a picture of rural Somerset is terms of Mosaic 2014 classifications. It considers the most rural areas (‘Rural Village and Dispersed’) and the less rural areas (‘Rural Town and Fringe’), as defined by the ONS Rural-Urban Classification.

Rural Village and Dispersed population

These areas have an average population density of around 0.5 people per hectare. According to Mosaic these households consist predominantly of mature married couples or singles (typified by the types: ‘Village Retirement’, ‘Wealthy Landowners’, ‘ Scattered Homesteads’, and ‘Satellite Settlers’). People in these groups are typically well-educated, have mid to high incomes, and are in reasonably good health.

Families with children make up a relatively small proportion of Somerset’s most rural population. Of these, the affluent ‘Rural Vogue’ (detached housing, good income) outnumber ‘Local Focus’ (low property value/social renting) by around 2 to 1.

Potentially the most vulnerable groups in Somerset villages are ‘Outlying seniors’ (aged 60+, low cost housing, low income) and ‘Pocket Pensions’ (mostly living alone, socially renting, low income). Typical locations for these types are Quantock Vale, Old Cleeve, Curry Rivel and Bishops Lydeard. Between them, these types account for around 8% of Somerset’s most rural households.

The great majority (96%) of households are classified within ten Mosaic types, as follows:

Table 1: Most common Mosaic types in 'rural village and dispersed' areas

Source: Mosaic 2014

Rural Town and Fringe population

These areas have an average population density of around 5 people per hectare. ‘Local Focus’ (families with children, mid-level income) is the most common type, followed by mature couples and singles represented by ‘Outlying Seniors’ and ‘Satellite Settlers’. Rural towns see a more diverse range of types, particularly in terms of a younger population demographic, e.g., ‘Contemporary Starts’ (full-time employed, starter salaries), ‘Mid Careers-Convention’ (professional jobs, mortgages) and ‘Bus-Route Renters’ (renting, living alone or sharing).

More than three-quarters (77%) of Somerset households in and around rural towns are represented by ten Mosaic types. The least affluent of these are typically ‘Pocket Pensioners’ (e.g. in Castle Cary and parts of Crewkerne and Somerton) and the younger ‘Bus-Route Renters’ (e.g. in parts of Glastonbury and Wincanton).

Table 2: Most common Mosaic types in 'rural town and fringe' areas

Source: Mosaic 2014

Alternative resources

For detailed statistics and key messages from the 2011 Census on rural Somerset see our Census 2011 Rurality page.