Welcome to the UK Data Service
Trusted access and training to use the UK's largest collection of economic, population and social research data for teaching, learning and public benefit.
Highlights
Autumn 2024 UK Data Service Newsletter
Our latest issue features Dr Steve McEachern our new Director, the UK Data Service Dissertation Award winners, the Royal Statistical Society Conference, and the new Data Impact Fellows scheme.
Professor Matthew Woollard awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List
We’re delighted for Professor Matthew Woollard, who served as Director of the UK Data Service and UK Data Archive from 2010 to 2023.
UK Data Service introductory training series: Autumn 2024
We provide access to a wide range of social science data for reuse. To help you get the most from these resources, we run a free introductory training series.
Upcoming training and events
Our impact
Data Impact Fellows applications open
Applications for our 2025 Data Impact Fellows cohort are now open. Find out more about who is eligible, how you can apply and why you should.
How are children’s social, emotional and behavioural outcomes impacted by poverty?
This case study looks at the importance of social factors in mitigating disparities in the lives of young people in areas such as poverty, health, housing and discrimination.
The Good Childhood Report 2023
The Children’s Society’s Good Childhood Reports provide an annual overview of the current state of children’s subjective well-being. Read about how they make use of data from our catalogue, in this case study.
Seamless access to key data: explore by themes, types, and teaching datasets
Discover a wide array of national and international key datasets across various categories.
Watch our data skills training webinars
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Watch and learn all the latest data skills from our free webinars, training and video tutorials.
Introduction to effective and practical research data management
We explore the key components of effective research data management and also cover practical tools and techniques.
How to become a computational social scientist
We discuss computational social science, what it is good for, how to become a computational social scientist, and the basic steps to follow.
Ignite discovery: elevate your research with data deposits
Deposit your research data free, in our ESRC funded data catalogue.
Latest news
The UK Data Service featured as part of the University of Essex’s 60 stories campaign
This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the University of Essex. To celebrate, the university is publishing a series of sixty stories to highlight how students and staff at Essex have created global impact over the last six decades. We’re proud to be featured as one of these stories, highlighting how our […]
Applications are now open for our 2025 Data Impact Fellows scheme
Are you an early career researcher in the academic or Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector? Is your research related to one or both of the themes of “children and young people” or “mental health and wellbeing”? Does your research use data in the UK Data Service collection? Would you like support to develop your ideas […]
New release of European Language Social Science Thesaurus
The European Language Social Science Thesaurus (ELSST) is a broad-based, multilingual thesaurus for the social sciences. It is available in fifteen languages: Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish. The ELSST is owned and published by the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA). New innovations […]
Who makes us special?
Our podcast series, The Experts’ Expert, showcases some of the unique work we do to enable evidence-led research for public benefit.
