According to a survey in 2023, 65 percent of women in the UK would prefer a natural birth in a medical setting such as a hospital or a birthing center. This is only among women who have given or wish to give birth in their lifetime. Another 15 percent would prefer a cesarean section (c-section), while a further 13 percent would prefer a home birth.

This is a publication on maternity activity in English NHS hospitals. This report examines data relating to delivery and birth episodes in 2022-23, and the booking appointments for these deliveries. This annual publication covers the financial year ending March 2023. Data is included from both the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data warehouse and the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS). HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances for patients admitted to NHS hospitals in England. The HES data used in this publication are called 'delivery episodes'. The MSDS collects records of each stage of the maternity service care pathway in NHS-funded maternity services, and includes information not recorded in HES. The MSDS is a maturing, national-level dataset. In April 2019 the MSDS transitioned to a new version of the dataset. This version, MSDS v2.0, is an update that introduced a new structure and content - including clinical terminology, in order to meet current clinical practice and incorporate new requirements. It is designed to meet requirements that resulted from the National Maternity Review, which led to the publication of the Better Births report in February 2016. This is the fourth publication of data from MSDS v2.0 and data from 2019-20 onwards is not directly comparable to data from previous years. This publication shows the number of HES delivery episodes during the period, with a number of breakdowns including by method of onset of labour, delivery method and place of delivery. It also shows the number of MSDS deliveries recorded during the period, with breakdowns including the baby's first feed type, birthweight, place of birth, and breastfeeding activity; and the mothers' ethnicity and age at booking. There is also data available in a separate file on breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks. The count of Total Babies includes both live and still births, and previous changes to how Total Babies and Total Deliveries were calculated means that comparisons between 2019-20 MSDS data and later years should be made with care. Information on how all measures are constructed can be found in the HES Metadata and MSDS Metadata files provided below. In this publication we have also included an interactive Power BI dashboard to enable users to explore key NHS Maternity Statistics measures. The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care. This report will also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England. Any feedback on this publication or dashboard can be provided to enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk, under the subject “NHS Maternity Statistics”.

This is a publication on maternity activity in English NHS hospitals. This report examines data relating to delivery and birth episodes in 2023-24, and the booking appointments for these deliveries. This annual publication covers the financial year ending March 2024. Data is included from both the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data warehouse and the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS). HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances for patients admitted to NHS hospitals in England. The HES data used in this publication are called 'delivery episodes'. The MSDS collects records of each stage of the maternity service care pathway in NHS-funded maternity services, and includes information not recorded in HES. The MSDS is a maturing, national-level dataset. In April 2019, the MSDS transitioned to a new version of the dataset. This version, MSDS v2.0, is an update that introduced a new structure and content - including clinical terminology, in order to meet current clinical practice and incorporate new requirements. It is designed to meet requirements that resulted from the National Maternity Review, which led to the publication of the Better Births report in February 2016. This is the fifth publication of data from MSDS v2.0 and data from 2019-20 onwards is not directly comparable to data from previous years. This publication shows the number of HES delivery episodes during the period, with a number of breakdowns including by method of onset of labour, delivery method and place of delivery. It also shows the number of MSDS deliveries recorded during the period, with a breakdown for the mother's smoking status at the booking appointment by age group. It also provides counts of live born term babies with breakdowns for the general condition of newborns (via Apgar scores), skin-to-skin contact and baby's first feed type - all immediately after birth. There is also data available in a separate file on breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks. For the first time information on 'Smoking at Time of Delivery' has been presented using annual data from the MSDS. This includes national data broken down by maternal age, ethnicity and deprivation. From 2025/2026, MSDS will become the official source of 'Smoking at Time of Delivery' information and will replace the historic 'Smoking at Time of Delivery' data which is to become retired. We are currently undergoing dual collection and reporting on a quarterly basis for 2024/25 to help users compare information from the two sources. We are working with data submitters to help reconcile any discrepancies at a local level before any close down activities begin. A link to the dual reporting in the SATOD publication series can be found in the links below. Information on how all measures are constructed can be found in the HES Metadata and MSDS Metadata files provided below. In this publication we have also included an interactive Power BI dashboard to enable users to explore key NHS Maternity Statistics measures. The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care. This report will also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England. Any feedback on this publication or dashboard can be provided to enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk, under the subject “NHS Maternity Statistics”.

In 2023/24, around 23.7 percent of all childbirths in England were an emergency caesarean, while around 18.7 percent were an elective caesarean. These figures represent an increase in caesarean births from the last two years.

In 2023, the vast majority of live births in England and Wales occurred in hospitals, with just over 10,000 taking place at home, and 850 taking place elsewhere, compared with around 580,000 at hospitals.

Note: (10/12/2010) The Health and Social Care Information Centre initially published the Provider Level Analysis spreadsheet on 18/11/2010. Due to the suppression of small numbers it wasn't possible to calculate method of onset or delivery rates for all providers. Additional information has been added to tables C and D of the Provider Level Analysis allowing estimated rates to be presented. Maternity data The publication includes details of all deliveries taking place in NHS hospitals (in England) excluding home births and those taking place in independent sector hospitals. This includes a wide range of information such as details of how the baby was born (method of delivery), complications, birth weight and gestation. Data for 2009-10 A number of revisions have been made to the size and the presentation of the 2009-10 NHS Maternity Statistics publication. These revisions are intended to bring the publication in line with the National Statistics code of practice and highlight data quality issues to stimulate improvement in the quality of HES maternity data submitted by NHS organisations. For further details on the changes to the table numbers and locations see Appendix A of the maternity explanatory notes. The 2009-10 NHS Maternity Statistics publication will include two downloadable excel files; NHS Maternity Statistics, 2009-10 33 tables and 3 graphs are now available in one excel workbook which includes data on the following; Place of delivery Person conducting delivery Anaesthetics Method of onset and method of delivery Episiotomy Antenatal/postnatal stay Complications Gestation Birth weight Miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy Provider level analysis, 2009-10 The purpose of the provider level analysis is to contribute to the improvement of both the quality and coverage of maternity data submitted to HES. It is hoped this will stimulate discussion and ultimately contribute to enhancements in patient care. The provider level analysis provides information at National, strategic health authority, hospital provider and site level (where submitted) relating to: Gestation period in weeks at first antenatal assessment date Gestation length at delivery Method of onset of labour Method of delivery Person conducting delivery Place of delivery Selected maternity statistics Spontaneous deliveries with episiotomy Caesarean with postnatal stay 0-3 days Total caesarean with anaesthetics Unassisted deliveries Please note that an additional data quality note relating to gestation length at delivery was added on 08/01/2014.

This statistical release makes available the most recent monthly data on NHS-funded maternity services in England, using data submitted to the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS). This is the latest report from the newest version of the data set, MSDS.v.2, which has been in place since April 2019. The new data set was a significant change which added support for key policy initiatives such as continuity of carer, as well as increased flexibility through the introduction of new clinical coding. This was a major change, so data quality and coverage initially reduced from the levels seen in earlier publications. MSDS.v.2 data completeness improved over time, and we are looking at ways of supporting further improvements. This publication also includes the National Maternity Dashboard, which can be accessed via the link below. Data derived from SNOMED codes is used in some measures such as those for birthweight, and others will follow in later publications. SNOMED data is also included in some of the published Clinical Quality Improvement Metrics (CQIMs), where rules have been applied to ensure measure rates are calculated only where data quality is high enough. System suppliers are at different stages of development and delivery to trusts. In some cases, this has limited the aspects of data that can be submitted in the MSDS. Since last month, this publication contains a new Clinical Quality Improvement Metric (CQIM) called CQIMReadmissions. This new metric reports the number of babies born in hospital then discharged home, who were then readmitted to hospital while still under 30 days old. This is supported by five new data quality metrics to ensure we only publish CQIMReadmissions figures where the underlying data is of sufficient completeness and quality. The new data quality metrics are CQIMDQ46 to CQIMDQ50. Further information about this new readmissions metric can found in this publication’s Data Quality Statement. This new data can be found in the Measures file available for download and in the CQIM and CQIM+ pages in the National Maternity Dashboard, and further information on the new metrics can be found in the accompanying Metadata file. To help Trusts understand to what extent they met the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) Maternity Incentive Scheme (MIS) Data Quality Criteria for Safety Action 2, we have been producing a CNST Scorecard Dashboard showing trust performance against this criteria. This dashboard has been updated following the release of CNST Y6 criteria, and can be accessed via the link below. The percentages presented in this report are based on rounded figures and therefore may not total to 100%.

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) contains a wide range of maternity information which has been published annually since 2000-01. The publication includes details of all births taking place in NHS hospitals (in England) excluding home births and those taking place in independent sector hospitals. This includes a wide range of information such as details of how the baby was born (method of delivery), complications, birth weight and gestation.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Independent Midwives UK (IMUK) Research Database project was set up in 2002 as a prospective data collection. The aim was to collect a wide range of data from the IMs' case notes, covering antenatal, intrapartum and postpartum care. Each client was asked to sign a consent form giving permission for the data to be used. Research databases are normally designed to provide the minimum dataset that will satisfy the research requirements. The IMUK database took the opposite approach, collecting a wide range of data from the outset, with a 100% sample. This decision was made since it was neither practicable nor possible to contact clients for corrections and additions after the maternity care episode was completed. This has resulted in a dataset both comprehensive in scope and rich in detail. It may be particularly interesting because of the high proportion of home births (over 60%).

Study Author's Acknowledgment:
In memory of Roger Kistruck, with heartfelt thanks. Without him these datasets could not have been collected or processed.

Independent Midwives UK (IMUK) is a membership organisation for independent midwives (IMs) in the UK. All IMUK's full members are professionally trained midwives, and are regulated by the NMC. IMs work autonomously as lead health professionals for maternity care, booking clients outside the NHS system, although almost all clients booked are also entitled to GP, specialist and emergency care as NHS patients. More than 50% of births attended by independent midwives are home births.

For the June 2022 release, edits were made to the previous data files to create a standard End User Licence (EUL) access version. Users should note that the documentation may still refer to previous files. The variables contained in the EUL version are listed in the UKDA data dictionary files available in the documentation table.

Main Topics:

Data were collected on the following topics for each of the approximately 5,500 cases: Details of the woman client, her physical characteristics, age and medical history, particularly in relation to previous pregnancies, smoking and alcohol consumption. Details of the pregnancy and antenatal care, with tests, medication malpresentations and hospital visits. Details of the labour and birth with stage timings, nourishment, pain relief, any hospitalisation, induction of labour, assisted birth and outcome. For each baby (including twin babies) details of place of birth, gender, birthweight, any birthing problems, resuscitation, birth defects, health during the first six weeks, breastfeeding and health at discharge.

In the United Kingdom, the crude birth rate in 1800 was 37 live births per thousand people, meaning that 3.7 percent of the population had been born in that year. From 1800 until 1830, the crude birth rate jumped between 35 and 45, before plateauing between 35 and 37 until the 1880s. From 1880 until the Second World War, the crude birth rate dropped to just under fifteen births per one thousand people, with the only increase coming directly after World War One. After WWII, the United Kingdom experienced a baby boom, as many soldiers returned home and the economy recovered, however this boom stopped in the late 1960s and the crude birth rate went into decline again. From the late 1970s until today, the crude birth rate has remained between eleven and fourteen, and is expected to be 11.5 in 2020.

This is a publication on maternity activity in English NHS hospitals. This report examines data relating to delivery and birth episodes in 2019-20, and the booking appointments for these deliveries. This annual publication covers the financial year ending March 2020. Data is included from both the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data warehouse and the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS). HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances for patients admitted to NHS hospitals in England. The HES data used in this publication are called 'delivery episodes'. The MSDS collects records of each stage of the maternity service care pathway in NHS-funded maternity services, and includes information not recorded in HES. The MSDS is a maturing, national-level dataset. For data in 2019-20, the MSDS transitioned to a new version of the dataset. MSDS v2.0 is an update to the existing data set that introduces a new structure and content, including clinical terminology, in order to meet current clinical practice and incorporate new requirements. It is designed to meet requirements that resulted from the National Maternity Review, which led to the publication of the Better Births report in February 2016. This is the first publication of data from MSDS v2.0, therefore data from this year is not directly comparable to previous years. This publication shows the number of HES delivery episodes during the period, with a number of breakdowns including by method of onset of labour, delivery method and place of delivery. It also shows the number of MSDS deliveries recorded during the period, with breakdowns including the baby's first feed type and the folic acid use. The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care. This document will also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England. A slight correction has been made to the rates table in tab TC1920 of the HES Provider Analysis file which now derives the correct totals excluding the unknowns. These are the denominators for the respective rates in the table so all the rates have been updated.

Number of First Time Mothers aged 19 and under, all ages and aged 35 and over by Glasgow Data Zones. The figures represent a two years interval between 2000 to 2011. It also excludes home births and births at Non-NHS Hospitals. Metadata is contained within the resources. (c) Crown copyright, 2013. Data supplied by Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics Website Licence: None

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The National Patient Survey Programme is one of the largest patient survey programmes in the world. It provides an opportunity to monitor experiences of health and provides data to assist with registration of trusts and monitoring on-going compliance. Understanding what people think about the care and treatment they receive is crucial to improving the quality of care being delivered by healthcare organisations. One way of doing this is by asking people who have recently used the health service to tell the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about their experiences. The CQC will use the results from the surveys in the regulation, monitoring and inspection of NHS acute trusts (or, for community mental health service user surveys, providers of mental health services) in England. Data are used in CQC Insight, an intelligence tool which identifies potential changes in quality of care and then supports deciding on the right regulatory response. Survey data will also be used to support CQC inspections. Each survey has a different focus. These include patients' experiences in outpatient and accident and emergency departments in Acute Trusts, and the experiences of people using mental health services in the community. History of the programme The National Patient Survey Programme began in 2002, and was then conducted by the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), along with the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (CHAI). Administration of the programme was taken over by the Healthcare Commission in time for the 2004 series. On 1 April 2009, the CQC was formed, which replaced the Healthcare Commission. Further information about the National Patient Survey Programme may be found on the CQC Patient Survey Programme web pages. The Maternity Survey, 2017 looked at all three stages of the maternity pathway and covered care provided before birth (antenatal), during labour and birth, and in the first few weeks after birth (postnatal). The survey involved 130 NHS trusts in England and questionnaires were sent to 50,008 women. Responses were received from 18,426 women, an adjusted response rate of 37.4 per cent. Further information and documentation can be found on the NHS Surveys Maternity Survey 2017 web pages. Main Topics: The questionnaire covered: timings of the birth, antenatal care, labour and birth, postnatal care, feeding, care at home after birth and basic demographic information.For anonymity and confidentiality reasons a number of variables have been removed or recoded as follows: most sample variables provided by trusts (as described in the survey instruction manual) have been removed; G1 (specific age of respondents) has been recoded into age group (age_group) (and uses sample information if response data is missing); A1 (multiple births), C2 (home birth) and G4-G7 (demographics) have been removed due to very low numbers at trust level. G2 and G3 (previous pregnancy and births) have been recoded into a new variable called ‘Parity’. All information relating to non-respondents has been removed.

Births and deaths statistics for the UK and its constituent countries.

Provisional counts of deaths in care homes caused by coronavirus (COVID-19) by local authority. Published by the Office for National Statistics and Care Quality Commission.

Total number of young adults aged 15 to 34 years and total number of young adults aged 20 to 34 years in the UK living with their parents.

Background:
The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is a large-scale, multi-purpose longitudinal dataset providing information about babies born at the beginning of the 21st century, their progress through life, and the families who are bringing them up, for the four countries of the United Kingdom. The original objectives of the first MCS survey, as laid down in the proposal to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in March 2000, were:

• to chart the initial conditions of social, economic and health advantages and disadvantages facing children born at the start of the 21st century, capturing information that the research community of the future will require
• to provide a basis for comparing patterns of development with the preceding cohorts (the National Child Development Study, held at the UK Data Archive under GN 33004, and the 1970 Birth Cohort Study, held under GN 33229)
• to collect information on previously neglected topics, such as fathers' involvement in children's care and development
• to focus on parents as the most immediate elements of the children's 'background', charting their experience as mothers and fathers of newborn babies in the year 2000, recording how they (and any other children in the family) adapted to the newcomer, and what their aspirations for her/his future may be
• to emphasise intergenerational links including those back to the parents' own childhood
• to investigate the wider social ecology of the family, including social networks, civic engagement and community facilities and services, splicing in geo-coded data when available

Additional objectives subsequently included for MCS were:

• to provide control cases for the national evaluation of Sure Start (a government programme intended to alleviate child poverty and social exclusion)
• to provide samples of adequate size to analyse and compare the smaller countries of the United Kingdom, and include disadvantaged areas of England

Further information about the MCS can be found on the Centre for Longitudinal Studies web pages.

The content of MCS studies, including questions, topics and variables can be explored via the CLOSER Discovery website.

The first sweep (MCS1) interviewed both mothers and (where resident) fathers (or father-figures) of infants included in the sample when the babies were nine months old, and the second sweep (MCS2) was carried out with the same respondents when the children were three years of age. The third sweep (MCS3) was conducted in 2006, when the children were aged five years old, the fourth sweep (MCS4) in 2008, when they were seven years old, the fifth sweep (MCS5) in 2012-2013, when they were eleven years old, the sixth sweep (MCS6) in 2015, when they were fourteen years old, and the seventh sweep (MCS7) in 2018, when they were seventeen years old.

End User Licence versions of MCS studies:
The End User Licence (EUL) versions of MCS1, MCS2, MCS3, MCS4, MCS5, MCS6 and MCS7 are held under UK Data Archive SNs 4683, 5350, 5795, 6411, 7464, 8156 and 8682 respectively. The longitudinal family file is held under SN 8172.

Sub-sample studies:
Some studies based on sub-samples of MCS have also been conducted, including a study of MCS respondent mothers who had received assisted fertility treatment, conducted in 2003 (see EUL SN 5559). Also, birth registration and maternity hospital episodes for the MCS respondents are held as a separate dataset (see EUL SN 5614).

Release of Sweeps 1 to 4 to Long Format (Summer 2020)
To support longitudinal research and make it easier to compare data from different time points, all data from across all sweeps is now in a consistent format. The update affects the data from sweeps 1 to 4 (from 9 months to 7 years), which are updated from the old/wide to a new/long format to match the format of data of sweeps 5 and 6 (age 11 and 14 sweeps). The old/wide formatted datasets contained one row per family with multiple variables for different respondents. The new/long formatted datasets contain one row per respondent (per parent or per cohort member) for each MCS family. Additional updates have been made to all sweeps to harmonise variable labels and enhance anonymisation.

How to access genetic and/or bio-medical sample data from a range of longitudinal surveys:
For information on how to access biomedical data from MCS that are not held at the UKDS, see the CLS Genetic data and biological samples webpage.

Secure Access datasets:
Secure Access versions of the MCS have more restrictive access conditions than versions available under the standard End User Licence or Special Licence (see 'Access data' tab above).

Secure Access versions of the MCS include:

• detailed sensitive variables not available under EUL. These have been grouped thematically and are held under SN 8753 (socio-economic, accommodation and occupational data), SN 8754 (self-reported health, behaviour and fertility), SN 8755 (demographics, language and religion) and SN 8756 (exact participation dates). These files replace previously available studies held under SNs 8456 and 8622-8627
  
• detailed geographical identifier files which are grouped by sweep held under SN 7758 (MCS1), SN 7759 (MCS2), SN 7760 (MCS3), SN 7761 (MCS4), SN 7762 (MCS5 2001 Census Boundaries), SN 7763 (MCS5 2011 Census Boundaries), SN 8231 (MCS6 2001 Census Boundaries), SN 8232 (MCS6 2011 Census Boundaries), SN 8757 (MCS7), SN 8758 (MCS7 2001 Census Boundaries) and SN 8759 (MCS7 2011 Census Boundaries). These files replace previously available files grouped by geography SN 7049 (Ward level), SN 7050 (Lower Super Output Area level), and SN 7051 (Output Area level)
• linked education administrative datasets for Key Stages 1, 2, 4 and 5 held under SN 8481 (England). This replaces previously available datasets for Key Stage 1 (SN 6862) and Key Stage 2 (SN 7712)
  
• linked education administrative datasets for Key Stage 1 held under SN 7414 (Scotland)
• linked education administrative dataset for Key Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4 under SN 9085 (Wales)
  
• linked NHS Patient Episode Database for Wales (PEDW) for MCS1 – MCS5 held under SN 8302
• linked Scottish Medical Records data held under SNs 8709, 8710, 8711, 8712, 8713 and 8714;
• Banded Distances to English Grammar Schools for MCS5 held under SN 8394
• linked Health Administrative Datasets (Hospital Episode Statistics) for England for years 2000-2019 held under SN 9030
• linked Hospital of Birth data held under SN 5724.

The linked education administrative datasets held under SNs 8481,7414 and 9085 may be ordered alongside the MCS detailed geographical identifier files only if sufficient justification is provided in the application.

Researchers applying for access to the Secure Access MCS datasets should indicate on their ESRC Accredited Researcher application form the EUL dataset(s) that they also wish to access (selected from the MCS Series Access web page).

The Millennium Cohort Study, Sweeps 1-6, 2001-2015: Banded Distances of Home Moves between Sweeps study provides banded straight-line distances between each sweep of the MCS. Distances were calculated in a SIR database environment using the co-ordinates (eastings/northings of the British National Grid) of the unit postcode centroid of the address at interview, using the Pythagorean Theorem.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD) is the oldest and longest running of the British birth cohort studies.

From an initial maternity survey of 13,687 of all births recorded in England, Scotland and Wales during one week of March, 1946, a socially stratified sample of 5,362 singleton babies born to married parents was selected for follow-up. This sample comprises the NSHD cohort. The study members have been followed up in the course of 27 data collections. Regular interviews with the mothers were conducted by health visitors, with additional assessments by school doctors and teachers. In adult life, research nurses conducted home visits at ages 26,36,43,53 and 69, a detailed clinic visit took place between ages 60-64, as well as clinical sub studies focusing on the heart (Myofit46) and brain (Insight46). At the latest home visit at age 69, the participation rate was 80% (N=2149). In addition to regular postal questionnaires throughout life, there have been annual questionnaires to women (47-54 years) to capture the menopause transition and 3 waves of a COVID-19 questionnaires. Multiple datasets cover over 20,000 variables, including biological samples which have been used to generate a variety of omics data. Data have A range of imaging and wearable data have been collected in clinical and remote environments. The MRC National Survey for Health and Development (NSHD) has governance and access arrangements that comply with MRC data sharing policy. The survey data are accessible to bona fide researchers by applying through the NSHD data sharing platform, Skylark (https://skylark.ucl.ac.uk/) . This data can be made available to researchers, for more information please email MRCLHA.swiftinfo@ucl.ac.uk.

Census 2021 data on international student population of England and Wales by country of birth, passport held, age, sex and other characteristics.

These datasets are part of the release: The changing picture of long-term international migration, England and Wales: Census 2021. Figures may differ slightly in future releases because of the impact of removing rounding and applying further statistical processes.

Figures are based on geography boundaries as of 1 April 2022.

This release includes comparisons to the folllowing 2011 Census data:

• Students in full-time education
• International students (by Region)
• International students by country of birth
• International students by Top 100 countries of birth

Quality notes can be found here

Quality information about demography and migration can be found here

Quality information about labour market can be found here

Usual resident

A usual resident is anyone who on Census Day, 21 March 2021 was in the UK and had stayed or intended to stay in the UK for a period of 12 months or more, or had a permanent UK address and was outside the UK and intended to be outside the UK for less than 12 months.

International student

An international student is defined as someone who was a usual resident in England and Wales and meets all the following criteria:

• in-full-time education
• non-UK-born
• non-UK passport holder
• aged 17 years or over upon most recent arrival in the UK
• aged 18 years or over on Census Day.

Country of birth

The country in which a person was born. The following country of birth classifications are used in this dataset:

• Country of birth 12a: Political groupings of countries by EU membership and geographical location for non-EU countries.
• Country of birth 190a: Individual countries. This classification includes geographical groupings for low volume countries.
• Country of birth (3 categories): These categories have been derived from country of birth 12a and include all UK countries in "Europe: United Kingdom", all EU countries in "Europe: EU countries" and all remaining countries including British Overseas territories in "Non-EU countries (including British Overseas)".

More information about country of birth classifications can be found here.

Passports held

The country or countries that a person holds, or is entitled to hold, a passport for. Where a person recorded having more than one passport, they were counted only once, categorised in the following priority order: 1. UK passport, 2. Irish passport, 3. Other passport. The following classifications were created for this dataset for comparability with other international migration releases:

• Passports held (4 categories): High level political groupings of passport held by EU membership and geographical location for non-EU countries.
• Passports held (12 categories): Political groupings of passport held by EU membership and geographical location for non-EU countries.
• Passports held (150 categories): Individual countries for passport held. This classification includes geographical groupings for low volume countries.

More information can be found here

Economic activity status

The economic activity status of a person on Census Day, 21 March 2021. The following classification is used in this dataset:

• Economic activity status classification status_12a

Industry

The industry worked in for those in current employment. The following classification was used for this dataset:

• Industry (current) classification 22a

Student accommodation

Student accommodation breaks down household type by typical households used by students. This includes communal establishments, all student households, households containing a single family, households containing multiple families, living with parents and living alone.

More information can be found here

Second address indicator

The second address indicator is used to define an address (in or out of the UK) a person stays at for more than 30 days per year that is not their place of usual residence. Second addresses typically include: armed forces bases, addresses used by people working away from home, a student’s home address, the address of another parent or guardian, a partner’s address, a holiday home. There are 3 categories in this classification.

Detailed description can be found here

Main language (detailed)

This is used to define a person's first or preferred language. This breaks down the responses given in the write-in option "Other, write in (including British Sign Language)". There are 95 categories in the primary classification.

More details can be found here

Proficiency in English language

Proficiency in English language is used to determine how well a person whose main language is not English (English or Welsh in Wales) feels they can speak English. There are a total number of 6 categories in this classification.

More details can be found here