Finding data

Nesstar is the online data exploration system used to provide access to a wide variety of datasets held by ESDS including many large-scale datasets, for example, the Labour Force Survey, and academic surveys such as the British Social Attitudes Survey and the National Child Development Study . All visitors to the ESDS Nesstar Catalogue can browse study metadata, variable frequencies and use the simple and advanced search options. Registered users can also create simple online cross-tabulations, produce graphs, and download subsets of variables in a variety of formats.

Housing and Neighbourhoods monitor is maintained by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It aims to provide a snapshot of housing and neighbourhood trends across the UK. This includes the ability to view Google Map visualisations, charts and associated analysis for locations in the UK. Users may search by postcode to view such indicators as housing market supply, demand, and housing, levels of affordable housing, prices, demography, homelessness, labour market, neighbourhood characteristics and recent trends in relation to the rest of Britain.  Underlying statistical data is government sourced and can be downloaded as raw ASCII CSV.

 Data.gov.uk is a government run project powered by the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) open data registry. It provides access to a range of government datasets in addition to a developer space which allows users to interact, link and create data resources. The data content covers all areas of government policy ranging from health, to economy, crime, and education. Users can search by theme or keyword. The developer space provides access to Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and other widgets. The site also includes a blog, wiki, twitter and RSS feed and forum where users can share ideas on new applications, mashups and uses of government data.

The Scottish Government Statistics portal provides access to a wealth of Scottish statistical content on a range of topics such as: crime and justice; economy; environment; labour market; population and migration, school education. There are links to latest statistical publications and news releases and to key resources such as High Level Summary of Statistics, Scottish Indicators of Multiple Deprivation in addition to links to Scottish Surveys including: Scottish Household Survey, Scottish Health Survey; Scottish House Condition Survey; Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey.

Information about new government initiatives in Scotland, publications and links to other resources such as Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics, GROS, ISD of NHS Scotland, the UK Statistics Authority, and ONS are available.

The National Records of Scotland (formerly GROS) provides access to estimates of migration within Scotland, between Scotland and the rest of the UK and between Scotland and overseas. As there is currently no comprehensive registration of migration within, to and from the UK, these statistics are derived from survey data and the best existing proxy data. There is accompanying information on the methodology employed in their production.

The authoritative site on refugees and asylum seekers worldwide, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established in 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees.

Resources include: UNHCR Statistical Online Population Database, an archive of all statistical reports, UNHCR Statistical Yearbooks, in addition to quarterly trends.

A free web-based service which provides small area statistics for the following topics: Access to services; Community well-being; Social environment; Crime and safety; Economic deprivation; Education, skills and training; Health and care; Housing; Indices of deprivation; People and society; Physical environment; Work deprivation. Data are currently available for a number of geographies including super output areas, wards, local authorities, and health board areas. Alternatively, users may enter a postcode or go straight to the dataset catalogue to make their data selections. More data, including the 2001 Census results, are continuously being added. For Scottish area data, see the equivalent Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics site.