Understanding LSOA and MSOA boundaries (UK)?

Question

I'm currently attempting to do a statistics project summarising data across UK administrative boundaries, in particular Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) and Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs) as defined by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

However, I'm struggling to understand how LSOAs and MSOAs relate to each other.

Looking at the boundaries map available at neighbourhood statistics gives the impression that LSOAs are a breakdown of MSOAs however I can't find any documentation confirming this or a list mapping LSOAs to MSOAs.

I was hoping someone might be able to help explain how they relate to each other or point me in the way of some relevant documentation.

For reference I managed to find a basic description here, but it doesn't fully explain the relationship.

Answer 1

(Caveate: I'm newer to the specifics of National Statistics' Output Area geography than you are.)

From both the BoundaryViewer and output-areas-explained links you provide, I reach the same conclusion you do: there is a simple hierarchical relationship with Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOA) nesting inside, and filling, Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOA).

The SOA layers form a hierarchy based on aggregations of Output Areas (OAs).

The two layers of SOA, with areas intermediate in size between census Output Areas (OAs) and local authorities, each layer nesting inside the layer above.

Here's another quote, from a third reference (neighbourhood-statistics-geography-glossary):

Hierarchy

This refers to the different geographic hierarchies for which data are available on the website. The most important of these are the Statistical Geographic Hierarchies (Output Area - Lower Layer Super Output Area - Middle Layer Super Output Area - Local Authority - County ...