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Overview
Online portal to open access datasets and databases of social, economic and population data, maintained by the UK Data Service, governments and other parties, as well as related statistical information for U.K. business, academic, NGO and government sector research. https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/about-us.
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Collection Content
The UK Data Service collection includes major UK government-sponsored surveys, cross-national surveys, longitudinal studies, UK census data, international aggregate, business data, and qualitative data. The website provides: access to high-quality local, regional, national and international social and economic data; support for policy-relevant research in the higher education, public and commercial sectors; guidance and training for the development of skills in data use; development of best practice data preservation and sharing standards; and sharing of expertise with international data providers to remove barriers to accessing data.
Sources of the data include:
- Official agencies - mainly central government
- International statistical agencies
- Individual academics with research grants
- Market research agencies
- Historical sources
The database includes two distinct types of data:
- Quantitative: microdata are the coded numerical responses to surveys with a separate record for each individual respondent; macrodata are aggregate figures, for example country-level economic indicators; data formats include SPSS, Stata and tab-delimited formats.
- Qualitative:data include in-depth interviews, diaries, anthropological field notes and the complete answers to survey questions; data formats include Excel, Word and Rich Text Format (RTF)
The database content has geographic coverage of the UK, Europe, and developing world areas. The open data in the resource includes census data, international macrodata, qualitative data, and survey data.
Census data available through the UK Data catalog is aggregate data from censuses in England, Wales and Scotland held in 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011, as well as data for Northern Ireland from censuses in 1991, 2001 and 2011. The service also provides access to there is census flow data which are records reflecting migration and commuting data in the UK from the 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011.
International Macrodata is pulled from the WorldBank open data, IMF, and OECD online statistics and covers most major world regions. Macrodata includes:
- International Energy Agency data (restricted access)
- World Bank data (open access)
- OECD data (open access)
- International Monetary Fund data (open access)
- United Nations data (open access)
- Human Rights Atlas (open access)
The survey data has geographic coverage of the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, France, Austria, Spain, Ireland, Sweden, Portugal and Greece. Survey subjects covered include: Economics, Education, Employment and labor, Health, Housing, Industry and management, Environment, Law, crime, and legal systems, Social welfare policy and systems, society and culture, and others.
See more information in https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/media/204683/ukdataservicebrochure.pdf
Delivery
The UK Data Service provides easy access to the open data in the repository. The most readily available access method is the "Get data" link that is at the top of all webpages in the UK Data Service. Clicking on the Get data link will take users to a page with further options for data access. Those main options for exploring data include the "Key data" link which identifies major datasets available from the service by type of data. Additionally, users may explore "Data by theme" if the user knows which topic they are interested in.
When using the website's search functions, search results can be refined by the following parameters: Subject, Date, Data type, Key data, Country, Kind of data, Spatial Unit, Analysis Unit, and Access. Other search options are using the Variables and Questions bank for users looking for a response to a particular question.
Terms
Some datasets are not available to all users. Details of any access restrictions will be shown on the "Access" tab available for each dataset in the Data Catalogue. Registration is required in order for users to download, order, or analyse online data that are classified as Safeguarded or Controlled.
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