What data can I get?

The UK Data Service provides access to the UK’s largest collection of social, economic and population data for research and teaching purposes covering a range of different disciplines.

The data comes from a variety of sources including official government agencies, international statistical agencies, individual academics with research grants, market research agencies and historical sources.

The majority of these data are fully anonymised, unless otherwise specified in their online catalogue records, and are therefore not suitable for genealogical users or family historians.

Quantitative data

• Microdata are the coded numerical responses to surveys with a separate record for each individual respondent.
• Macrodata are aggregate figures, for example country-level economic indicators.
• Data formats include SPSS, Stata and tab-delimited formats.

Qualitative data

• Data include in-depth interviews, diaries, anthropological field notes and the complete answers to survey questions.
• Data formats include Excel, Word and Rich Text Format (RTF).

Multimedia

• A small number of datasets may include image files, such as photographs, and audio clips.

Non-digital material

• Paper media could include photographs, reports, questionnaires and transcriptions.
• Analogue audio or audio-visual recordings.

We have grouped datasets under the most popular themes to help you quickly identify key datasets relevant to each area.

Please view our ‘Browse by theme’ section on our data catalogue landing page, to explore the following themes:

Ageing, Crime, Economics, Health, Equality and inequality, Food and nutrition, Labour and employment, Youth.

Users can search for data relating to a specific geographic location.

Data by country

• Data by country is searchable from our Data Catalogue.
• Browse our data map.

Data by UK geography

• Administrative geography data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
• Postal data, also from the ONS.

Postcode tools

• GeoConvert
• Postcode Data Selector
• Postcode Directory Download
• Electoral data, ONS
• Boundary data.

Access to data is governed by our Data Access Policy.

If you are accessing data classified as Open you do not have to register with the UK Data Service. Registration is only required if you wish to download, order, or analyse online, data classified as Safeguarded or Controlled.

A step-by-step guide to the registration process can be found on the Registration FAQs while the Download and order page provides information on requesting access to Safeguarded and Controlled data.

To start searching the data we hold, you can search our Data Catalogue by using our search and browse application.

For information about how to access data for teaching purposes visit our Teaching datasets pages.

Our Which categories of data are most suitable for me? page provides guidance on which category of data in the UK Data Service collection is likely to be appropriate for different types of research projects.

Our Can I request specific variables or subsets of data? page explains which variables you can get from the UK Data Service and the formats that these data are available in.