London Night Workers Classification (LNWC)

Approximately a quarter of London’s workforce is employed in the evening and night-time economy, working between the hours of 6pm and 6am. Compared to those people who work during the day, there is little public information on where they work, how they travel to work, and what amenities they use during work hours. The London Night Workers Classification (LNWC) is an innovative, specialised geodemographic to enable planners, researchers and policymakers to better understand the complex landscape of night work in London.

The LNWC is an open geodemographic based on the night-working characteristics of all 2021 Lower layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) within Greater London. Uniquely, the classification is built by combining official employment statistics with mobile phone mobility footfall data. Using these data, LSOAs were segmented into seven geographic clusters, each with its own distinctive night-working characteristics.

Content

The LNWC is constructed using mobile phone activity data (BT footfall data licensed through the GLA High Streets Data Service) and employment structure data (Directory of London Businesses, available through the London Datastore).

The data are provided in CSV format at LSOA level for Greater London. Additional resources, including a variable dictionary and a technical report, are also available for download.

Quality, Representation and Bias

All processing steps and methodological details are documented in the accompanying technical report. Final cluster allocations and interpretations were shared for comment and validation with representatives from the GLA, TfL, local councils and businesses. A peer-reviewed paper has been accepted for publication in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science and will be linked here as soon as it is available.

Open

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Source UCL Social Data Institute, Geographic Data Service
Author Cheshire, James; Mavrogeni, Mikaella; Iliev, Michał; Van Dijk, Justin
Maintainer Cheshire, James
Last Updated December 18, 2025, 14:21 (UTC)
Created December 10, 2025, 15:41 (UTC)
Attribution The data for this research have been provided by the Geographic Data Service (GeoDS.ac.uk), a Smart Data Research UK Investment: ES/Z504464/1.
Frequency Snapshot
Granularity LSOA21CD
Spatial Coverage Greater London
Temporal Coverage January 2024