I know variations of this question have been asked a lot but I havnt found one that exactly relates to my situation.
Im making a fixed-width website. Device detection will redirect phones to a separate mobile site. I need to decide on what width to make the main site and I have no existing analytics data to work from, however the site will be focused on the UK and not need to be global.
It seems the 960 width is irrelevant in Western Europe and 1024 is the smallest common screen width, meaning that a slightly narrower design to account for scroll bars is the way to go.
I had a quick look at the facebook site which has its main breakpoint for smaller displays at 981px. So this would allow for 43px which seems more than necessary.
Please dont post here saying the site should be responsive, device detection is unreliable, etc. I know this but but the client has decided not to go with responsive / mobile optomised and this cant be changed.