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
Winners of the UK Data Service Dissertation Award 2026
We’re delighted to announce the winners of this year’s Dissertation Award, which celebrates outstanding undergraduate research using archived data available through the UK Data Service. Read our news story to learn more about our winners and their exceptional work.
We've been awarded Horizon Europe funding
The UK Data Service will receive just over €1.5 million in funding to develop AI-enabled tools and services, which support access to data for researchers. Our contribution to two new projects will drive development, in collaboration with CESSDA.
The UK Data Service launches new guidance resource for data producers
We are delighted to announce a comprehensive restructuring and expansion of our Learning Hub materials for those producing data. This guidance suite offers flexible, best-practice methodologies that can be adapted by researchers, data stewards, and academic institutions worldwide.
Upcoming training and events
Our impact
How can national data support safer, stronger local communities?
Our new 'local communities in data' impact theme brings together UK Data Service-enabled research, case studies, blog posts and data resources to explore how national datasets are used to understand and strengthen local communities. The theme focuses on three connected lenses: place, people and safety.
What does Resolution Foundation research reveal about “Unsung Britain” and living standards today?
Drawing on Resolution Foundation research using data accessed through the UK Data Service, the impact team examines “Unsung Britain”—lower-income families working more but seeing limited improvements to their living standards.
What does gender equality look like in the UK today?
This new Impact Case Study looks at the Gender Equality Index UK: the first index to systematically measure and analyse the socioeconomic outcomes of women and men across all 372 local authorities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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
This workshop explores the key components of effective research data management, including data management planning, organising, and documenting data, ensuring data quality, storing and backing up data, as well as strategies for data preservation and sharing.
Using agent-based models as a sim tool to generate synthetic data
We explore the intersection of two computational social science ideas, synthetic data and agent-based models. This workshop covers why we create synthetic data using ABM, when it would be appropriate to do so, and much more.
Ignite discovery: elevate your research with data deposits
Deposit your research data free, in our ESRC funded data catalogue.
Latest news
Latest data collections and new editions 4 September 2026
An update of our latest data releases New datasets released SN 9610 Out of Home Food Intake and Behaviours Among Adults Living in Scotland, 2025 SN 9606 Alumni Voices: Round 3, 2025-2026 SN 9605 Alumni Voices: Round 2, 2024-2025 SN 9609 Labour Force Survey Five-Quarter Longitudinal Dataset, April 2025 – June, 2026 SN 9608 Labour […]
Vacancy: Data Access and Use Assistant
University of Essex, UK Data Archive, Faculty of Social Sciences The UK Data Archive is seeking to appoint a Data Access and Use Assistant to support the UK Data Service’s data access and Helpdesk operations. Applicants should be customer-focused, with well-developed ‘soft’ skills, particularly in verbal communication, conflict resolution and collaboration. Further details and job pack […]
Vacancy: Head of Metadata Management and Discovery
University of Essex, UK Data Archive, Faculty of Social Sciences The UK Data Archive is seeking to appoint a new Head of Metadata Management and Discovery to provide strategic leadership for metadata policies, standards, workflows and services across the UK Data Service. The successful candidate should have substantial experience in metadata management within a research, […]
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.
