Exploring census microdata
Census microdata provides multivariate samples of individuals and households from the England and Wales Census 2021. Similar samples will be released for the Northern Ireland and Scottish censuses in due course. With 5% samples of individuals and 1% samples of households available to registered users of the UK Data Service they offer the potential to carry out more complex multivariate analysis of census data than the aggregate tables provided by the Office for National Statistics, UK Data Service and Nomis.
At the end of this free workshop, you will:
- Appreciate the information held in the census microdata.
- Be able to access the data from the UK Data Service.
- Prepare the data for analysis.
- Appreciate the potential to produce more complex tables and charts, carry out exploratory analysis of different factors, and combine variables in a single analysis to identify associations with a variable of interest.
The workshop is intended to introduce the census microdata as a valuable tool for researchers to explore substantive questions about the characteristics of the population of the UK. In the workshop we will explain what is available, discuss how to prepare it for analysis, and then aggregate it to enable easier analysis. A practical element will allow you to explore an aggregated dataset in Excel or a statistical package you are comfortable with.
Presenter: Nigel de Noronha, UK Data Service
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.
Event resources
Data files (Zipped file of data in Excel and SPSS)
Description of data files (PDF)
Presentation slides (PDF)