Geographical data visualisation of UK Census data

A table of numbers is not always the best way to present census data, often we want to visualise information in some way to help people see patterns quickly.

This free online workshop, organised by the UK Data Service, will focus on the use of freely available visualisation tools to create geographical visualisations of census data from the UK Data Service, with an emphasis on the free and open-source cross-platform QGIS GIS application that supports viewing, editing and analysis of geospatial data. For comparison, alternatives to QGIS, including Tableau Public, will also be considered.

The workshop is at the introductory level, no prior experience is needed.

This hands-on workshop will include:

• a brief introduction to the UK Data Service and UK census data
• demos and exercises showing you how to download different types of census data from the UK Data Service
• an introduction to types of geographical data visualisation and common issues that need to be considered when applying data visualisation to UK census data
• hands-on exercises demonstrating the use of QGIS to create visualisations such as choropleth maps, cartograms, flow maps and dasymetric maps from UK census data
• exploring Tableau Public to create maps, other visualisations, and a dashboard
• demos of other approaches to visualisation

Format wise, the workshop will consist of short presentations followed by time during which attendees will be able to work through practical hands-on exercises using the software installed on their own computers.

There will also be time available for attendees to ask questions they have about the use of UK census data provided by the UK Data Service.

Presenter: James Crone, UK Data Service

Level: Beginner

Experience/knowledge required: None, although to be able to carry out the practical exercises, participants need to have installed on their own computer QGIS and/or Tableau Public, both of which are free to download and install

Target audience: Anyone wanting to get started creating maps and other visualisations from UK census data using the QGIS desktop GIS application and Tableau Public

Recordings of UK Data Service events are made available on our YouTube channel and, together with the slides, on our past events pages soon after the event has taken place.