LibGuides: Social Sciences &amp; Social Work: Statistics / Data Sets

UK Data Service / Archive

The UK Data Service is the largest collection of social science data sets available for research and teaching in academia.

The first time you use the service you'll be asked to register. After that, you will be able to log in to any of the data sets and surveys. A free online training programme is available.

Data is sourced from:

official agencies - mainly central government
international statistical agencies
individual academics with research grants
market research agencies
historical sources
other data archives worldwide

UK Data Service Training

UK Data Service introductory training series: Autumn 2023

We provide access to a wide range of social science data for reuse. To help you get the most from our service, we run free introductory level online workshops every spring and autumn to introduce different aspects of the UK Data Service.

Our training series workshops in autumn 2023 are listed below and you can also browse our events pages for a full list of what is available.

Data management basics: Introduction to data management and sharing, 21 September, 11.00 – 12.30
Data management basics: Ethical and legal issues in data sharing, 28 September, 10.00 – 11.30
Dissertation projects: Introduction to secondary analysis for qualitative and quantitative data, 5 October, 10.00 -11.30
Data in the spotlight: Large scale social surveys, 10 October, 10.00 – 11.30
How to anonymise qualitative and quantitative data, 19 October, 11.00 – 12.30
Depositing your data with ReShare, 26 October, 11.00 – 12.30
Introduction to copyright: Copyright and publishing, 2 November, 10.00 – 11.30
Introduction to copyright: Copyright and secondary data use, 9 November, 10.00 – 11.30
How to become a computational social scientist, 21 November, 10.00 – 11.30
Getting started with secondary analysis, 22 November, 10.00 – 11.30
Introduction to the UK Data Service, 23 November, 10.00 – 11.30
How to document quantitative and qualitative data, 28 November, 11.00 - 12.30
Finding and accessing data from the UK Data Service, 29 November, 10.00 – 11.30
Consent issues in data sharing, 30 November, 10.00 – 11.30
Data in the spotlight: Census and population studies, 5 December, 10.00 – 11.30
Data in the spotlight: Longitudinal data, 7 December, 10.00 – 11.30
Data in the spotlight: International time series databanks, 12 December, 10.00 – 11.30
Data in the spotlight: Qualitative and mixed methods data,14 December, 10.00 – 11.30

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.

Official Statistics

CSO Ireland Providing access to the databases of Ireland's national statistical office, this resource includes statistics relating to social and economic conditions.
Eurostat Eurostat is required to standardise statistics provided by EU members in order to enable reliable comparison for decision makers.
NISRA Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency is the principal source of official statistics and social research on Northern Ireland. Statistics can be browsed by topic.
OECD Statistics drawn from OECD member countries and which can be browsed by subject or topic.
ONS The Office for National Statistics provides a ange of economic, social and population statistics about the UK.
OpenDataNI A collection of data sets available from the public sector in Northern Ireland
Scotland Statistics Provides access to a range of official statistics about Scotland which can be explored by topic. Also includes over 150 datasets.
StatWales Provides access to a range of statistics about Wales which can be browsed by topic.
UN Data Archive This resource provides a single entry point for the UN statistical databases. It covers a wide range of themes including Agriculture, Crime, Education, Employment, Energy, Environment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Development, Industry, Information and Communication Technology, National Accounts, Population, Refugees, Tourism, and Trade.