1. ABOUT THE DATASET -------------------- Title: ScotRail Station Catchment Demographics Creator(s): Lin, Youxin and Nawaz, Rizwan Organisation(s): University of Leeds. Rights-holder(s):Unless otherwise stated, Copyright 2025 University of Leeds Publication Year: 2025 Description: This dataset contains information on railway stations and their surrounding areas. Each record corresponds to a station (RailName) and includes its urban–rural classification under the 2022 framework (UR22_2FOLD, UrbanRural2Fold2022Name, and UrbanRural8Fold2022Name). It also provides annual estimates of station usage in terms of entries and exits (Demand), April 2023 to March 2024, and identifies the administrative authority in which the station is located (Local authority: county or unitary). In addition, the dataset reports demographic and socio-economic characteristics within a 15-minute walking catchment of each station, including resident population (Popcount_within15walking), number of employed people (Employmentcount_within15walking), car ownership (CarsCount_within15walking), and student population (Studentcount_within15walking). Cite as: Lin, Youxin and Nawaz, Rizwan (2025) ScotRail Station Catchment Demographics. University of Leeds. [Dataset] https://doi.org/10.5518/1750 Original data sources: Census data: https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/census-results/download-data/census-table-data/ Railway coordinate data: https://find.data.gov.scot/datasets/32646 Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification 2020: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-urban-rural-classification-2020/pages/5/ Estimates of station usage: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usage 2. TERMS OF USE --------------- Unless otherwise stated, this dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. 3. CONTENTS ----------- The dataset has 1 file - station_data.xlsx The dataset describes railway stations, including their 2022 urban–rural classification, annual entries/exits, local authority, and socio-demographic indicators within a 15-minute walk (population, employment, car ownership, and students). 4. METHODS ---------- This dataset combines demographic, transport, and urban-rural classification data to analyse railway station demand and its surrounding characteristics in Scotland. Three main data sources were used. The first is the 2022 Scotland Census, which provides output-based information on population, employment, student numbers, and car ownership (National Records of Scotland, 2022). These variables were used to represent the socioeconomic context of each station. The second source is the Railway Coordinate Dataset published by the Scottish Government, which provides the geographical locations of active railway stations, including their names and coordinates (latitude and longitude) (Scottish Government, 2023a). The third source is the Scottish Government Urban–Rural Classification 2020, which identifies the settlement type of each area based on population density and accessibility to large settlements (Scottish Government, 2023b). The fourth source is the annual dataset of passenger entries, exits and interchanges for each station, covering the period from April 2023 to March 2024 (Office of Rail and Road, 2024). All datasets were spatially joined using the coordinates or the name of railway stations. The 15-minute walking catchment around each station was delineated to calculate the number of residents, jobs, cars, and students within walking distance. These indicators were derived by overlaying the census data with the catchment areas. In addition, each station was assigned its urban–rural classification code (twofold, sixfold, and eightfold) to capture the level of urbanisation and accessibility. The resulting dataset provides a detailed description of the local environment surrounding each railway station, including both demand-related and contextual variables. This integrated dataset supports further analysis of the relationship between station location, urban–rural context, and potential demand. It allows comparison of stations across different settlement types, helping to understand how population distribution and local accessibility influence railway usage in various areas of Scotland. References National Records of Scotland (2022). Scotland’s Census 2022: Census Table Data. Available at: https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/census-results/download-data/census-table-data/ Scottish Government (2023a). Railway Station Coordinates Dataset. Available at: https://find.data.gov.scot/datasets/32646 Scottish Government (2023b). Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification 2020. Available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-urban-rural-classification-2020/pages/5/ Office of Rail and Road (2024) Estimates of station usage. Available at: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usage