About P² People & Places : Beacon Dodsworth : Products

About P² People & Places

P² People & Places is the geodemographic classification built by Beacon Dodsworth, in partnership with the Department of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool who created Super Profiles, using 2001 Census data.

In addition to the Census 2001, the Target Group Index (TGI) was used to provide extra descriptive variables. This provides measures of income and also lifestyle which cannot be obtained from the Census.

In the creation of P², the UK was split into four separate regions to allow maximum differentiation:

London and the M25
The rest of England and Wales
Scotland
Northern Ireland

Because London is unique within the UK, by treating it as a separate region, P² provides real depth and understanding of London, whilst ensuring that the areas outside this region are also accurately represented.

How P² classifies people

P² is built at both full postcode and output area levels for the United Kingdom (UK). It is built in a hierarchical structure with three tiers of clusters: Trees, Branches and Leaves. These tiers are ranked in order of affluence.

The Tree level enables you to broadly profile customers or areas into 14 categories, which is further categorised into 41 Branches and 157 Leaves, allowing for greater segmentation.

Unlike other geodemographic classification systems, P² contains more socioeconomic data (e.g. on ethnic groups) which means it can look in more depth at disadvantaged groups, which is particularly useful to the public sector.

What they said...

"P² provides a greater level of discrimination by deprivation, and other demographic and social measures, than other systems"
^{Karen Tocque, NWPHO}