UK Data AtlasAPI

Find what a named location sits in

The other way round from listing its areas: which regions, counties or combined authorities a named location falls in, and whether it covers each one whole or only part of it.

get
/locations/{location-id}/parents

Good to know

  • Give geography and release, then choose a crosswalk with via. Leave via out to see the crosswalks you can use.

Path parameters

  • location-idstringrequired

    A curated named location id from GET /v1/locations, e.g. greater-manchester.

Query parameters

  • geographystringrequired

    The coarser geography to find parents in, such as region.

  • releasestringrequired

    The boundary release of that geography.

  • viastringoptional

    The published crosswalk from the location's declared memberGeography to that geography. Omit it to be told which are available.

Returns

object

The parents the location covers or meets, and any members placed in none.

When it goes wrong

  • 400geography or release is missing, or via is not given; the detail lists the crosswalks published for that geography and release.
  • 404No resource matches that identity.

Every error has the same shape. See Errors for how to handle them.

Technical notes

Show the precise behaviour

The other direction from members: which regions, counties, combined authorities or countries a location lies in, and whether it takes in each one whole. A location is defined by codes in its declared memberGeography, so a parent geography is reached through a published crosswalk out of that geography, named with via; asking without it lists the crosswalks published for that geography and release.

Each parent's relation is covers when the location takes in all of it and intersects when it takes in only part. Through a containment or membership lookup that is decided by count, and parentMemberCount says how many authorities the publisher places in the parent. Through an area-overlap crosswalk it is decided by area, and coveredShare is the share of the parent the location's members cover, with 0.99 or more counting as cover. members lists the location's own authorities in each parent.

locationWithin names the single parent holding every member, and is null when the members fall in several parents or the crosswalk places any of them in none. Those are listed in unplaced: a Welsh authority under an English region lookup, or a district outside every combined authority. coverage classifies the location's codes against the authority release the crosswalk starts from, exactly as on members.

Every answer is compiled in advance for each location and crosswalk, so this reads a projection rather than walking a crosswalk per request.