Understanding and accessing 2011

census aggregate data

4 July 2013

11:00 to 16:00 BST

Justin Hayes and Richard Wiseman

UK Data Service Census Support

UK censuses provide an unparalleled resource of high quality information about a wide range of current and historical demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population across the UK. This free, one-day workshop will provide an introduction to the aggregate data outputs from the 2011 UK Census and an opportunity to explore the InFuse interface designed to simplify access to and understanding of these data in hands on sessions. The workshop will be of interest to existing and potential academic users of census outputs.

Welcome

Justin Hayes

UK Data Service

The University of Manchester

Richard Wiseman

UK Data Service

The University of Manchester

Workshop structure

The UK Data Service

• A new service funded by the

ESRC, integrating several

previous resources

• A single, comprehensive and

integrated point of access to a

wide range of social science data

• Support, training and guidance

• ukdataservice.ac.uk

UK Data Service Census Support

• A specialist unit of the UK Data Service

• Access to, and support for use of data from the last five

UK censuses (1971 – 2011)

• Bespoke interfaces to make data easy to find,

understand and use

• census.ukdataservice.ac.uk

UK Censuses

• Huge questionnaire surveys of the entire UK population

• Primary evidence for government policy and spending

• Rich source of secondary socio-economic information

• Wide range of variables

• Small geographical scales

• High quality and consistency

• Long history

• Individual-level, aggregate, flow and boundary data

outputs

UK 2011 Census

• 27 March 2011

• UK census agencies (ONS, NRS, NISRA)

• New questions and variables

• Online and postal completion

• Targeted enumeration

• Sophisticated quality assurance

New questions • National identity

• Passports held

• Ability in spoken

English

• Languages other than

English used at home

• Long term health

conditions (detailed for

Scotland/Northern

Ireland)

• Month/year of arrival

into the UK (for people

not born in the UK)

• Intention to stay

• Second homes

Aggregate data

• Counts of people or households,

etc. with particular combinations of

characteristics within sets of geographical zones

varying from large to small

• Number of female full-time students resident in the

County of Devon?

• = 20,434

17 59

22

24

37

Example aggregate data

Age : 16 to 24 years old - Religion (England and Wales) :

Muslim - Unit : People

2011 Census geographies

• Subdivisions of the area of the UK into ‘zones’

• Layers of similar zones called ‘geographies’ (eg

Counties)

• Nesting geography hierarchies

• Administrative

• Statistical

• Small areas consistent with 2001

• Different structures across UK

2011 Census geographies

UK administrative geography relationships

UK statistical geography relationships

Geography characteristics

zone_count mean population stdev/mean

United Kingdom 1 63,182,200 -

Countries 4 15,795,544 1.36

Regions 9 5,890,273 0.30

Counties 35 1,168,561 0.80

Unitary Authorities 78 194,568 0.52

Districts 270 151,480 0.72

MSOA 7201 7,787 0.21

Wards 8570 6,543 0.69

LSOA 34753 1,614 0.19

Output Area 181408 309 0.27

Geography zone codes

• GSS codes (Government Statistical Service)

• Uniquely identify zones

• 9 characters

• E05000036

• First character - country

• Second and third digits – geography entity

• Final six digits – geography zone instance

Top ward names

Other Geographies

• Parishes

• Electoral

• Health areas

• Postcodes and Postcode sectors

• Urban areas and settlements

• Workplace zones

• National parks

2011 Census aggregate outputs

• Lengthy consultation process

• Confidentiality

• 100 year rule

• Statistical disclosure control (SDC) measures

• Trade-off of information detail vs geographical detail

• Lower information detail for smallest zones

• Higher information detail for larger zones

• Examples

• Single years of age at MSOA

• Five year groups at OA

• Open data!

• Open Government Licence (OGL)

2011 Census Aggregate Outputs

Lower detail for all geographies

zone_count mean population stdev/mean

United Kingdom 1 63,182,200 -

Countries 4 15,795,544 1.36

Regions 9 5,890,273 0.30

Counties 35 1,168,561 0.80

Unitary Authorities 78 194,568 0.52

Districts 270 151,480 0.72

MSOA 7201 7,787 0.21

Wards 8570 6,543 0.69

LSOA 34753 1,614 0.19

Output Area 181408 309 0.27

Higher detail down to wards

zone_count mean population stdev/mean

United Kingdom 1 63,182,200 -

Countries 4 15,795,544 1.36

Regions 9 5,890,273 0.30

Counties 35 1,168,561 0.80

Unitary Authorities 78 194,568 0.52

Districts 270 151,480 0.72

MSOA 7201 7,787 0.21

Wards 8570 6,543 0.69

LSOA 34753 1,614 0.19

Output Area 181408 309 0.27

Release Timeline

Jul-Aug 2012

Oct-Nov 2012

Dec 2012

Jan 2013

Feb 2013

Mar 2013

Apr 2013

May 2013

Jun 2013

Jul 2013

Aug 2013

Sep 2013

Oct 2013

From Winter 2013/14

Release Timeline

Jul-Aug 2012

Oct-Nov 2012

Dec 2012

Jan 2013

Feb 2013

Mar 2013

Apr 2013

May 2013

Jun 2013

Jul 2013

Aug 2013

Sep 2013

Oct 2013

From Winter 2013/14

InFuse

• Make census data easier to:

• Find

• Understand

• Use

• Improvements in

• Search across entire census datasets

• Availability of meaning via metadata

• Consistency of categories and labels

• Built on comprehensive reprocessing and integration of

data and metadata

• NO TABLES! - cross-search by topic

• No data – fast!

Access to InFuse 2011

• 2011 Census version of InFuse recently launched

• Public access with registration and login

• All data is open via Open Government Licence

• UK academics using their usual username and password

• Others using a UK Data Archive account

What’s next?

• Progressive release of UK 2011 outputs

• Previous censuses (currently in Casweb)

• Search and comparability across censuses

• Improvements to interface design and features

• Access to underlying API for application development

• Engagement with NSIs

• Better data from producers

• Possible access without login

census.ukdataservice.ac.uk

InFuse Support

infuse.mimas.ac.uk

census.ukdataservice.ac.uk

Digital boundaries and mapping

Digital boundary data

Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

• Sophisticated database applications

• Store spatial entities and relationships

• Join attribute data to spatial entities (what to where)

• Perform spatial operations

• Visualisations

• Spatial analysis