Abstract
Data drawn mainly from census publications are used to compute trends in population, household, employment and other characteristics for towns of 50,000 and over in England and Wales over the period 1951 to 1971. Component analysis reveals that the predominating factors illustrating the differentiation between towns are socio-economic status and household characteristics, especially overcrowding. Cluster analysis is used to define twelve classes of towns whose characteristics and trends are compared. This classification is shown to relate closely with a socio-economic group index. Both the component interpretations and the classification possess temporal continuity.

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