Welcome

How business can benefit from the new free census data.

The Beyond 2011 project has been set up to research viable alternative options to the traditional census. Its aim is to deliver recommendations for providing timely and cost-effective population and socio-demographic statistics that meet user needs.

Read the report by Policy Exchange here:

This report is the first of two publications summarising the results of Ireland's 2011 census. This first one, This is Ireland - Part 1, looks at overall population change by county; it also examines age, marriage, households and families as well as including first results on nationality, foreign languages, the Irish language, religion and housing.

The second summary report, This is Ireland - Part 2, (coming in June), will look at other social and economic factors such as employment, occupations, education and skills as well as health related topics.

Gain a greater understanding of open data, and the tools and techniques to use open datasets, through a series of free masterclasses hosted by Ordnance Survey.

Following on from the success of the two previous open data masterclass series, individuals, developers, community groups, social entrepreneurs, commercial and government organisations are invited to attend the latest series of masterclasses. The masterclasses are run by Ordnance Survey's GeoVation initiative and supported by Horizon Digital Economy Research.

Those participating stand to benefit from a greater understanding of the opportunities around open data; as well as being provided with the tools and techniques needed to use and analyse a range of open datasets relevant to them.

Locations and dates of the sessions:

16 March - Open University, Milton Keynes http://odmcmiltonkeynes.eventbrite.co.uk/   

23 March - Technium OpTIC Centre, St Asaph http://odmcstasaph.eventbrite.co.uk/

26 March - University of Manchester http://odmcmanchester.eventbrite.co.uk/ 

27 March - University of Cardiff http://odmccardiff.eventbrite.co.uk/

29 March - Ordnance Survey, Southampton http://odmcsouthampton.eventbrite.co.uk/

30 March - RGS (with IBG), London http://odmcrgs.eventbrite.co.uk/ 

Interested participants should click on the relevant link to reserve their space and obtain a masterclass ticket.

More information on OS OpenData is available on the Ordnance Survey website

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/products/os-opendata.html

A workshop on analytical products will be presented to users detailing the ONS current proposals and plans for analytical products including:

• initial thoughts on analytical reports and articles that draw on census, survey and administrative statistics, building on the 'Focus On' series produced after the 2001 Census.
• providing an analytical centre for the census to promote wider analytical use of census data, promote best practice and provide a one-stop website for access to analyses drawing on 2011 Census, covering both government and academic research.

Users will have the opportunity to:

• comment on the current proposals
• stimulate discussions on what analysis users would like to see produced (and indeed the analysis they have planned)
• discuss the relative priorities of these to help shape ONS census analysis work programme

This workshop will be the same as that held in London in October 2011 and will be held 21 March 2012, 10am - 3pm, at Britannia Hotel, Portland Street, Manchester, M1 3LA If you wish to attend, please contact katy.taylor@ons.gov.uk. There are limited places available which will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

The Beyond 2011 User Requirements consultation closed on 20th January. More than 300 responses to the consultation were received and more than 200 people attended the workshops.

Work on analysing the consultation responses and the feedback from the workshops is now being carried out. These will feed into a consultation report which will be published in the spring, along with plans of how the consultation findings will be taken forward.

More immediately, there are plans to release a quarterly Beyond 2011 newsletter, starting in April this year. The newsletter will provide a regular update on progress and links to research and discussion papers as they are published. The first edition will provide information on plans and the start of the discussion on the criteria that will be used to evaluate the options. Your views on this will be welcomed by ONS, as it is important that there is a clear understanding of how the options will be assessed and of the rules that will inform the final recommendations.

The ONS Beyond 2011 web pages are being reviewed over the coming weeks and users are advised to check back there for updates:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/what-we-do/programmes---projects/beyond-2011/index.html

For further information or for any queries, the Beyond 2011 email address is: beyond2011@ons.gov.uk  

Following discussions with Northern Ireland and Scotland, the health categories for outputs on general health will be reported to reflect the response categories as they appeared in the 2011 Census questionnaire. These categories are "Very good", "Good", "Fair", "Bad" and "Very Bad".

Please view the completed consultation questionnaire on the MRS website.

The ONS Harmonisation Team is organising a series of road-shows to highlight the benefits of using harmonised standards. The road-shows will also be used to talk about recent developments both in terms of new/revised harmonised standards, revisions to the process used to develop and agree harmonised standards, and soon to be completed projects such as the Harmonised Question Library. 

As part of the ongoing promotion of the benefits of harmonisation, ONS would like to organise a series of road-shows at different locations around the UK over the next few months. They would like to engage with a wide range of users/stakeholders including Government Departments and related agencies of the UK Nations and non-governmental organisations, etc. 

Please register your interest by emailing Harmonisation@ons.gsi.gov.uk

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has produced a prototype interactive map of estimated local average household incomes as a mash-up with Google Maps and Street View for visualisation of any locality. The maps are defined at the level of Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA) for England & Wales only. The aim is to encourage user feedback on the prototype. The map shows telling patterns of income variation.An introductory page includes a link to the maps and a contact for feedback. The map page, in turn, includes a link to comprehensive background information.