Datasets available to the Higher Education Community through Data Archives
UK Data Archives
Please note that data held by the most of the UK data archives is only available to the higher education and research communities. See individual archives for details.
EDINA (Edinburgh Data and Information Access) - access to national online services for the UK tertiary education and research community - includes:
- Services which includes:
- Digimap - collection of EDINA services that deliver maps and map data of Great Britain
- Datanation - combines official 2011 census data with authoritative Ordnance Survey maps.
- AgCensus - Grid square agricultural census data for England, Scotland and Wales.
- Noteable
Longitudinal Studies Centre - Scotland (LSCS) - responsible for the establishment and maintenance of the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS). This dataset includes a large sample of the Scottish population and links together various demographic, socio-economic and health data about these individuals. The data are available to academics and support is provided by a team of researchers.
UK Data Service - Census Support - provides access to the 1971, 1981,1991 and 2001 Census datasets
Experian Demographic Data, 2004-2005 and 2008-2011 - Experian Postal Sector Data which is an annually updated database of neighbourhood statistics. The Experian database provides access to a range of statistics covering geodemographics, demography, property transactions and car ownership for current postal sectors together with associated digital boundaries.
Landmap Project - including the Bartholomew digital map data, the '91 Census of Population digital boundary data, and extensive archives of satellite data from SPOT and Landsat, ERS and the deliverables of the LANDMAP Project.
UK National Digital Archive of Datasets (NDAD) - provides access to an emerging category of public record - computer datasets from UK government departments and agencies
UK Data Archive - acquires, disseminates, preserves, and promotes the largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the United Kingdom.
The UK Data Archive integrates information previously held by the Economic and Social Data Service. ESDS was a national data archiving and dissemination service which came into operation in January 2003. The service was a jointly-funded initiative sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). The ESDS provided an integrated service offering enhanced support for the secondary use of data across the research, learning and teaching communities. All users can access study descriptions, online documentation, including questionnaires, free of charge and without registering. Registered users (GUID) can also download and explore/analyse online a large and growing number of datasets.
- Large-scale government surveys, such as the General Household Survey and the Labour Force Survey are key data resources for social science researchers. Some specific data series being covered under this service include:
- Annual Population Survey
- Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) (formerly the British Crime Survey)
- British Social Attitudes
- Continuous Household Survey (Northern Ireland)
- Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF) (formerly the Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS))
- Family Expenditure Survey
- Family Resources Survey
- General Lifestyle Survey (formerly General Household Survey)
- Health Survey for England
- Labour Force Survey
- National Food Survey
- National Travel Survey
- Northern Ireland Family Expenditure Survey
- Northern Ireland Labour Force Survey
- Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (and the former Northern Ireland Social Attitudes)
- Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (formerly ONS Opinions Survey and ONS Omnibus Survey)
- Scottish Crime Survey (replaced the Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey (following the Scottish Crime Survey))
- Scottish Health Survey (SHeS)
- Scottish Social Attitudes Survey
- English Housing Survey (formerly English House Condition Survey and Survey of English Housing)
- Time Use Survey
- Vital Statistics for England and Wales
- Welsh Health Survey
- Young People's Social Attitudes Survey (periodic offshoot of the BSA)
- Other Government data
- International datasets
Macro data sources - data aggregated to a country or regional level- Eurostat CROS (Collaboration in Research and Methodology for Official Statistics)
- IEA Coal Information
- IEA CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion
- IEA Electricity Information
- IEA Energy Prices and Taxes
- IEA Energy Technology Research and Development Database
- IEA Natural Gas Information
- IEA Oil Information
- IEA Renewables Information
- IEA World Energy Statistics and Balances
- ILO Key Indicators of the Labour Market
- IMF Balance of Payment Statistics
- IMF Direction of Trade Statistics
- IMF Government Finance Statistics
- IMF International Financial Statistics
- IMF World Economic Outlook
- OECD Education Statistics
- OECD Measuring Globalisation
- OECD International Development (Debt and Aid)
- OECD International Direct Investment Statistics
- OECD International Migration Statistics
- OECD International Trade by Commodities Statistics
- OECD Main Economic Indicators
- OECD Main Science and Technology Indicators
- OECD National Accounts
- OECD Employment and Labour Market Statistics
- OECD International Trade in Services
- OECD Social and Welfare Statistics
- OECD Structural Analysis
- UNIDO Industrial Demand-Supply Balance Database
- UNIDO Industrial Statistics
- United Nations Common Databases
- World Bank International Debt Statistics
- World Bank World Development Indicators
Micro datasets- Eurobarometer Survey Series
- European Election Study, 2004
- European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions datasets
- European Social Survey
- European Values Study: Wave 4, Great Britain, 2009-2010
- International Social Survey Programme
- Latinobarómetro
- Young Lives: an International Study of Childhood Poverty
See also online guides to the UK Data service
- UK Data Service Longitudinal Studies: will support a range of longitudinal data collections. Data are available via the UKDA web-based download system. Simple registration with ESDS is required to download the longitudinal datasets. Datasets will be made available through Nesstar where the data structure makes this helpful to users.
- 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)
- British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)
- Cohort and Longitudinal Studies Enhancement Resources (CLOSER)
- English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)
- Growing Up in Scotland (GUS)
- Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
- National Child Development Study (NCDS)
- Next Steps (also known as the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE1))
- Our Future (also known as the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE2))
- Understanding Society study, or the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS)
- UK Data Service Qualitative Data: specialist service providing access to, and support for, a range of qualitative datasets
AHDS History - collects, preserves, and promotes the use of digital resources, which result from or support historical research, learning and teaching - includes:
- Great Britain Historical Database online - large database of British nineteenth and twentieth-century statistics
- Great Britain Historical GIS / See also Vision of Britain website
- Scottish Economic History Database 1550 - 1780
Machine-readable Version of the 1861 Census and Vital Registration Database
Other Data Archives
European and World Data Map - provided by UK Data Archive - see also:
- Norwegian Historical Data Centre (Univ of Tromso) - Norwegian censuses 1865 onwards together with the parish registers and other sources from the 18th and 19th centuries
- Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) (University of Minnesota) - census microdata for social and economic research
- National Historical Geographic Information System - provides easy access to summary tables and time series of population, housing, agriculture, and economic data, along with GIS-compatible boundary files, for years from 1790 through the present and for all levels of U.S. census geography, including states, counties, tracts, and blocks.
Contact Us
Please contact the Maps, Official Publications and Statistics Unit if you have any questions.