Data Service: United Kingdom

Key data resources and data collections made available via University of Oxford subscription or open data initiatives.

Aerial Digimap
This online service will enable you to view aerial photographs of Great Britain at up to 25 cm resolution. The photos can be viewed on screen, saved for printing or downloaded as data for use in GIS. Access via SSO and user registration.

Gov.data.uk
An open data project that contains over 19,000 non-personal data sets from UK government departments. Contributing departments cover areas such as business, environment, families, health, international development and transport. Available datasets may be freely searched and data requests submitted.

Mass Observation Online
Access to material from the pioneering ethnographic project ‘Mass Observation’. It includes the entire File Report sequence 1937–1972, access to all of the Day Surveys, Directives and Diaries, 1937–1967 and Mass Observation Publications 1937–1965. A searchable topic collection covers issues such as capital punishment, elections, education, Housing work and leisure. The resource also includes interactive maps, bibliographic resources and essays on various aspects of Mass Observation.

National Digital Archive of Datasets (NDAD)
Contains archived digital data from UK government departments and agencies, provides open access to the catalogues of all its holdings, and free access to open datasets following a simple registration process.

National Records of Scotland: Census
This site contains statistics and documentation relating to the three census returns in Scotland between 1991 and 2011. Statistics are available for administrative, health, electoral and other geographic areas.

Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
This is the principal source of official statistics and social research on Northern Ireland available to social scientists, policy makers and researchers. Thematic groupings of statistics include; agriculture fishing and forestry; crime and justice; labour market and population and migration.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) for England and Wales
The ONS is the official site of the UK government for census and other government surveys. Visitors are able to search statistics by area, region or place. Browsing by themes such as agriculture, business and energy; children, economy and health is also available.

Ordnance Survey
Maps and Mapping data made available via the Ordnance Survey website as part of an open data project. Tools relate to subjects such as boundary-lines, place names, postcodes, the roads and waterways network.

Regional Trends
Regional Trends is a comprehensive regular source of official statistics for the Statistical Regions of the UK (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Government Office Regions within England). It includes a wide range of demographic, social, industrial and economic statistics, covering aspects of life in the regions.

Social Trends
A resource developed by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) that draws together social and economic data from a wide range of sources. It paints a broad picture of UK society today and how it has been changing.

UK Data Service
An archive of social science research that, in collaboration with the UK Data Archive, makes data available from many key governmental surveys. Content may be downloaded or analysed online that relates to social attitudes, citizenship, housing, income and expenditure, transport and a wide range of other issues.

World Bank Development Indicators
Data from the World Bank may be filtered to focus on the United Kingdom and covers topics such as agriculture, climate change, economy and growth, education, gender, health and poverty. The primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources may also be accessed and analysed.

You can find further resources on this theme by using on Databases A-Z or SOLO and subject guides.

Recommendations for additions to these lists are always welcome. Please email the Bodleian Data Service (data@bodleian.ox.ac.uk) with suggestions.