The 2021 UK Census was the 23rd official census of the United Kingdom. The UK Census is generally conducted once every 10 years, and the 2021 censuses of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland took place on 21 March 2021. In Scotland, the decision was made to move the census to March 2022 because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic (see SNs 9461 and 9462). The censuses were administered by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and National Records of Scotland (NRS), respectively.

Census 2021 was the first census with a digital-first design, encouraging participants to respond online rather than on a paper questionnaire. Support was given to people who could not respond online, including paper questionnaires, telephone contact centres, field force support, and an extended collection period.

Topics covered in the 2021 UK Census included:

• demography and migration
• ethnic group, national identity, language and religion
• labour market and travel to work
• housing
• education
• health, disability, and unpaid care
• Welsh and other languages
• UK armed forces veterans
• sexual orientation and gender identity.

The 2021 Census: Safeguarded Household Microdata Sample dataset consists of a random sample of 1% of households from the 2021 Census and contains records for all individuals within these sampled households. It includes records for 263,729 households and 606,210 persons. These data cover England and Wales only. This sample allows linkage between individuals in the same household.  The lowest level of geography is Wales and regions within England. It contains 56 variables and a low level of detail. This is a new ONS product following user feedback from the 2011 Census.

Census Microdata

Microdata are small samples of individual records from a single census from which identifying information have been removed. They contain a range of individual and household characteristics and can be used to carry out analysis not possible from standard census outputs, such as:

• creating tables using bespoke variable combinations
• investigating specific combinations of variables or categories in a high level of detail
• conducting non-tabular statistical analyses on record-level data.

The microdata samples are designed to protect the confidentiality of individuals and households. This is done by applying access controls and removing information that might directly identify a person, such as names, addresses and date of birth. Record swapping is applied to the census data used to create the microdata samples. This is a statistical disclosure control (SDC) method, which makes very small changes to the data to prevent the identification of individuals. The microdata samples use further SDC methods, such as collapsing variables and restricting detail. The samples also include records that have been edited to prevent inconsistent data and contain imputed persons, households, and data values. To protect confidentiality, imputation flags are not included in any 2021 Census microdata sample.

The Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM) project has produced a standardised, integrated dataset of most of the censuses of Great Britain for the period 1851 to 1921: England and Wales for 1851-1861, 1881-1921 and Scotland for 1851-1901 and 1921, making available to academic researchers, detailed information at parish level about everyone resident in Great Britain collected at most of the decennial censuses between 1851-1921. Users should note that the 1871 England and Wales census data and 1911 Scottish census data are not available via I-CeM.

The original digital data has been coded and standardised. In addition, the original text and numerical strings have always been preserved in separate variables, so that researchers can go back to the original transcription. However, users should note that name and address details for individuals are not currently included in the database; for reasons of commercial sensitivity, these are held under Special Licence access conditions under SN 7856 for data relating to England, Wales and Scotland, 1851-1911 and SN 9281 for data relating to England and Wales, 1921.

This study (7481) relates to the available anonymised data for 1851-1911, i.e. all available years except 1921. Data for England and Wales 1921 are available under SN 9280. The data are available via an online system at https://icem.ukdataservice.ac.uk/

Latest edition information

For the second edition (June 2024), the 1851-1911 data have been redeposited with amended and enhanced data values.

Further information about I-CeM can be found on the "https://www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/icem/" target="_blank"> I-CeM Integrated Microdata Project webpages.

This Special Licence access dataset contains names and addresses from the Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM) dataset of the censuses of Great Britain for the period 1851 to 1911. These data are made available under Special Licence (SL) access conditions due to commercial sensitivity.

The anonymised main I-CeM database that complements these names and addresses is available under SN 7481. It comprises the Censuses of Great Britain for the period 1851-1911; data are available for England and Wales for 1851-1861 and 1881-1911 (1871 is not currently available for England and Wales) and for Scotland for 1851-1901 (1911 is not currently available for Scotland). The database contains over 180 million individual census records and was digitised and harmonised from the original census enumeration books. It details characteristics for all individuals resident in Great Britain at each of the included Censuses. The original digital data has been coded and standardised; the I-CeM database has consistent geography over time and standardised coding schemes for many census variables.

This dataset of names and addresses for individual census records is organised per country (England and Wales; Scotland) and per census year. Within each data file each census record contains first and last name, street address and an individual identification code (RecID) that allows linking with the corresponding anonymised I-CeM record. The data cannot be used for true linking of individual census records across census years for commercial genealogy purposes nor for any other commercial purposes. The SL arrangements are required to ensure that commercial sensitivity is protected. For information on making an application, see the Access section.

The data were updated in February 2020, with some files redeposited with longer field length limits. Users should note that some name and address fields are truncated due to the limits set by the LDS project that transcribed the original data. No more than 10,000 records out of some 210 million across the study should be affected. Examples include:

• England and Wales:
  • 1851 - truncated at the 24th character (maximum I-CeM field length 95 characters)
  • 1881 - truncated at the 16th character (maximum I-CeM field length 50 characters).
• Scotland: for 1851‐71, truncations affect less than 0.01% of all addresses and for 1851 around 1% at most
  • 1851 - truncated at the 70th character
  • 1861 - truncated at the 76th character
  • 1871 - truncated at the 82th character
  • 1881 - truncated at the 50th character.

Further information about I-CeM can be found on the I-CeM Integrated Microdata Project and I-CeM Guide webpages.

This Special Licence access dataset contains names and addresses from the Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM) dataset of the censuses of Great Britain for the period 1851 to 1911. These data are made available under Special Licence (SL) access conditions due to commercial sensitivity.

The anonymised main I-CeM database that complements these names and addresses is available under SN 7481. It comprises the Censuses of Great Britain for the period 1851-1911; data are available for England and Wales for 1851-1861 and 1881-1911 (1871 is not currently available for England and Wales) and for Scotland for 1851-1901 (1911 is not currently available for Scotland). The database contains over 180 million individual census records and was digitised and harmonised from the original census enumeration books. It details characteristics for all individuals resident in Great Britain at each of the included Censuses. The original digital data has been coded and standardised; the I-CeM database has consistent geography over time and standardised coding schemes for many census variables.

This dataset of names and addresses for individual census records is organised per country (England and Wales; Scotland) and per census year. Within each data file each census record contains first and last name, street address and an individual identification code (RecID) that allows linking with the corresponding anonymised I-CeM record. The data cannot be used for true linking of individual census records across census years for commercial genealogy purposes nor for any other commercial purposes. The SL arrangements are required to ensure that commercial sensitivity is protected. For information on making an application, see the Access section.

The data were updated in February 2020, with some files redeposited with longer field length limits. Users should note that some name and address fields are truncated due to the limits set by the LDS project that transcribed the original data. No more than 10,000 records out of some 210 million across the study should be affected. Examples include:

• England and Wales:
  • 1851 - truncated at the 24th character (maximum I-CeM field length 95 characters)
  • 1881 - truncated at the 16th character (maximum I-CeM field length 50 characters).
• Scotland: for 1851‐71, truncations affect less than 0.01% of all addresses and for 1851 around 1% at most
  • 1851 - truncated at the 70th character
  • 1861 - truncated at the 76th character
  • 1871 - truncated at the 82th character
  • 1881 - truncated at the 50th character.

Further information about I-CeM can be found on the I-CeM Integrated Microdata Project and I-CeM Guide webpages.

Anyone who has taught GIS using Census Data knows it is an invaluable data set for showing students how to take data stored in a table and join it to boundary data to transform this data into something that can be visualised and analysed spatially. Joins are a core GIS skill and need to be learnt, as not every data set is going to come neatly packaged as a shapefile or feature layer with all the data you need stored within. I don't know how many times I taught students to download data as a table from Nomis, load it into a GIS and then join that table data to the appropriate boundary data so they could produce choropleth maps to do some visual analysis, but it was a lot! Once students had gotten the hang of joins using census data they'd often ask why this data doesn't exist as a prepackaged feature layer with all the data they wanted within it. Well good news, now a lot off it is and it's accessible through the Living Atlas! Don't get me wrong I fully understand the importance of teaching students how to perform joins but once you have this understanding if you can access data that already contains all the information you need then you should be taking advantage of it to save you time. So in this exercise I am going to show you how to load English and Welsh Census Data from the 2021 Census into the ArcGIS Map Viewer from the Living Atlas and produce some choropleth maps to use to perform visual analysis without having to perform a single join.

The aggregate data produced as outputs from censuses in the United Kingdom provide information on a wide range of demographic and socio-economic characteristics. They are predominantly a collection of aggregated, or summary counts of the numbers of people, families or households resident in specific geographical areas possessing particular characteristics drawn from the themes of population, people and places, families, ethnicity and religion, health, work, and housing.

Aggregate data for Census 2011 cover the full range of geographies employed within the census, from the smallest (output areas with an average of 150 persons in England and Wales) to the nation as a whole.

• Access data through InFuse
• Census aggregate data guide

Citation: Office for National Statistics. (2019). 2011 Census: Aggregate Data. [data collection]. UK Data Service. SN: 7427, http://doi.org/10.5257/census/aggregate-2011-2

The UK censuses took place on 27 March 2011. They were run by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA), National Records of Scotland (NRS), and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for both England and Wales. The UK comprises the countries of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Statistics from the UK censuses help paint a picture of the nation and how we live. They provide a detailed snapshot of the population and its characteristics, and underpin funding allocation to provide public services. This is the home for all UK census data.

A data set of cross-nationally comparable microdata samples for 15 Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) countries (Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, USA) based on the 1990 national population and housing censuses in countries of Europe and North America to study the social and economic conditions of older persons. These samples have been designed to allow research on a wide range of issues related to aging, as well as on other social phenomena. A common set of nomenclatures and classifications, derived on the basis of a study of census data comparability in Europe and North America, was adopted as a standard for recoding. This series was formerly called Dynamics of Population Aging in ECE Countries. The recommendations regarding the design and size of the samples drawn from the 1990 round of censuses envisaged: (1) drawing individual-based samples of about one million persons; (2) progressive oversampling with age in order to ensure sufficient representation of various categories of older people; and (3) retaining information on all persons co-residing in the sampled individual''''s dwelling unit. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania provided the entire population over age 50, while Finland sampled it with progressive over-sampling. Canada, Italy, Russia, Turkey, UK, and the US provided samples that had not been drawn specially for this project, and cover the entire population without over-sampling. Given its wide user base, the US 1990 PUMS was not recoded. Instead, PAU offers mapping modules, which recode the PUMS variables into the project''''s classifications, nomenclatures, and coding schemes. Because of the high sampling density, these data cover various small groups of older people; contain as much geographic detail as possible under each country''''s confidentiality requirements; include more extensive information on housing conditions than many other data sources; and provide information for a number of countries whose data were not accessible until recently. Data Availability: Eight of the fifteen participating countries have signed the standard data release agreement making their data available through NACDA/ICPSR (see links below). Hungary and Switzerland require a clearance to be obtained from their national statistical offices for the use of microdata, however the documents signed between the PAU and these countries include clauses stipulating that, in general, all scholars interested in social research will be granted access. Russia requested that certain provisions for archiving the microdata samples be removed from its data release arrangement. The PAU has an agreement with several British scholars to facilitate access to the 1991 UK data through collaborative arrangements. Statistics Canada and the Italian Institute of statistics (ISTAT) provide access to data from Canada and Italy, respectively. * Dates of Study: 1989-1992 * Study Features: International, Minority Oversamples * Sample Size: Approx. 1 million/country Links: * Bulgaria (1992), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/02200 * Czech Republic (1991), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/06857 * Estonia (1989), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/06780 * Finland (1990), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/06797 * Romania (1992), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/06900 * Latvia (1989), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/02572 * Lithuania (1989), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/03952 * Turkey (1990), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/03292 * U.S. (1990), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/06219

The 2021 UK Census was the 23rd official census of the United Kingdom. The UK Census is generally conducted once every 10 years, and the 2021 censuses of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland took place on 21 March 2021. In Scotland, the decision was made to move the census to March 2022 because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic (see SNs 9461 and 9462). The censuses were administered by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and National Records of Scotland (NRS), respectively.

Census 2021 was the first census with a digital-first design, encouraging participants to respond online rather than on a paper questionnaire. Support was given to people who could not respond online, including paper questionnaires, telephone contact centres, field force support, and an extended collection period.

Topics covered in the 2021 UK Census included:

• demography and migration
• ethnic group, national identity, language and religion
• labour market and travel to work
• housing
• education
• health, disability, and unpaid care
• Welsh and other languages
• UK armed forces veterans
• sexual orientation and gender identity.

Census flow data involve flows of individuals in the UK between origins and destinations. These flows are either the residential migrations of individuals from one place of usual residence to another, or of commuters making journeys from home to workplace or place of study.

These data are derived from the questions on the census form relating to usual place of residence one year ago, and the place of work for the respondent's main job. Flow data are currently available at a range of different spatial scales ranging from Output Areas to Local Authority Districts.

National and subnational mid-year population estimates for the UK and its constituent countries by administrative area, age and sex (including components of population change, median age and population density).

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The 1961 Census Microdata for Great Britain: 9% Sample: Secure Access dataset was created from existing digital records from the 1961 Census. It comprises a larger population sample than the other files available from the 1961 Census (see below) and so contains sufficient information to constitute personal data, meaning that it is only available to Accredited Researchers, under restrictive Secure Access conditions. See Access section for further details.

The file was created under a project known as Enhancing and Enriching Historic Census Microdata Samples (EEHCM), which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council with input from the Office for National Statistics and National Records of Scotland. The project ran from 2012-2014 and was led from the UK Data Archive, University of Essex, in collaboration with the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (CMIST) at the University of Manchester and the Census Offices. In addition to the 1961 data, the team worked on files from the 1971 Census and 1981 Census.

The original 1961 records preceded current data archival standards and were created before microdata sets for secondary use were anticipated. A process of data recovery and quality checking was necessary to maximise their utility for current researchers, though some imperfections remain (see the User Guide for details).

Three other 1961 Census datasets have been created; users should obtain the other datasets in the series first to see whether they are sufficient for their research needs before considering making an application for this study (SN 8275), the Secure Access version:

• SN 8272 - 1961 Census Microdata Individual File for Great Britain: 5% Sample, which contains information on individuals in larger local authorities;
• SN 8273 - 1961 Census Microdata Household File for Great Britain: 0.95% Sample, which links household members together to allow individuals to be understood within their household context. SNs 8272 and 8273 are both available to registered UK Data Service users based in the United Kingdom (see Access section for non-UK access restrictions); and
• SN 8274 - 1961 Census Microdata Teaching Dataset for Great Britain: 1% Sample: Open Access, which can be used as a taster file and is freely available for anyone to download under an Open Government Licence.

Main Topics:

The file contains information on individuals in local authorities and counties. Topics covered include demographics, for example family and household circumstances, employment and qualifications, migration, commuting, car ownership, and housing.

The UK censuses took place on 29th April 2001. They were run by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA), General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for both England and Wales. The UK comprises the countries of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Statistics from the UK censuses help paint a picture of the nation and how we live. They provide a detailed snapshot of the population and its characteristics, and underpin funding allocation to provide public services.

The Controlled Access Microdata Sample Test File (CAMS) test file is a sub-sample of 298,912 cases from the Individual CAMS from the 2001 Census. Variables have been perturbed to ensure that no sample members can be identified. Perturbation has retained the correct distribution of each variable but the relationships between variables will not give expected results. The test file can therefore be used to develop and test statistical software syntax for analyses before going to use the CAMS at the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It cannot be used to test exploratory analyses with any reliability, nor will it provide the ability to test statistical procedures which are dependent on distributions. It is not suitable for research purposes and has been provided only as a dummy dataset for preparing syntax in advance of using the CAMS file. The protection comes from perturbing multiple variables per person with a high probability of change and by providing no indication of whether a variable value has been perturbed. The CAMS test file only covers individuals in private households in England and Wales, and excludes students living away from their parental home and households of six people or more. These limitations do not apply to the full CAMS files. Other differences may apply in terms of variable availability.

Further information about the Test CAMS may be found on the Cathie Marsh Centre for Survey Research Samples of Anonymised Records website. Users should consult the codebook for the full CAMS file prior to applying to use the data or preparing syntax.

The application procedure for the full CAMS data is available on the ONS Census 2001 Individual CAMS and the Census 2001 Household CAMS webpages.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Census 2011 Microdata Teaching File for Northern Ireland data collection forms part of the statistical outputs from the 2011 UK Census. The Teaching File is an open access dataset constructed from the safeguarded microdata sample of individuals (see SNs 7769 and 7770 for background information). Converted by the UK Data Service Census Support Service, it is an SPSS/Stata version of the spreadsheet Microdata Teaching File for Northern Ireland produced by Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), drawn from data collected in the 2011 Census. The file was produced by NISRA with a variables list and a user guide – all of which are considered the essential and definitive companions to the data. The original spreadsheet format Microdata Teaching File is an open government file and is available from the NISRA 2011 Census Microdata Teaching File webpage.

More information about the teaching file and Census 2011, including forms and links to other Census data, are available both on the NISRA site or via the UK Data Service Census Support webpages.


Main Topics:

Topics covered include: age, economic activity, ethnicity, health, industry, marital status, occupation, religion, whether UK born.

The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) is a longitudinal birth cohort study, following a nationally representative sample of over 17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1970. Cohort members have been surveyed throughout their childhood and adult lives, mapping their individual trajectories and creating a unique resource for researchers. It is one of very few longitudinal studies following people of this generation anywhere in the world.Since 1970, cohort members have been surveyed at ages 5, 10, 16, 26, 30, 34, 38, 42, 46, and 51. Featuring a range of objective measures and rich self-reported data, BCS70 covers an incredible amount of ground and can be used in research on many topics. Evidence from BCS70 has illuminated important issues for our society across five decades. Key findings include how reading for pleasure matters for children's cognitive development, why grammar schools have not reduced social inequalities, and how childhood experiences can impact on mental health in mid-life. Every day researchers from across the scientific community are using this important study to make new connections and discoveries.BCS70 is run by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), a research centre in the UCL Institute of Education, which is part of University College London. The content of BCS70 studies, including questions, topics and variables can be explored via the CLOSER Discovery website.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 BCS70 that are not held at the UKDS, see the CLS Genetic data and biological samples webpage.Secure Access datasetsSecure Access versions of BCS70 have more restrictive access conditions than versions available under the standard End User Licence (EUL). SN 9392 - 1970 British Cohort Study: Age 51, Sweep 11 Geographical Identifiers, 2021 Census Boundaries, 2021-2024: Secure Access includes detailed geographical variables from the BCS70 Age 51 Sweep 11 that can be linked to the main End User Licence data, available under SN 9347 - 1970 British Cohort Study: Age 51, Sweep 11, 2021-2024. The Age 51, Sweep 11 2011 Census Boundaries are available under SN 9391.International Data Access Network (IDAN)These data are now available to researchers based outside the UK. Selected UKDS SecureLab/controlled datasets from the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) and the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) have been made available under the International Data Access Network (IDAN) scheme, via a Safe Room access point at one of the UKDS IDAN partners. Prospective users should read the UKDS SecureLab application guide for non-ONS data for researchers outside of the UK via Safe Room Remote Desktop Access. Further details about the IDAN scheme can be found on the UKDS International Data Access Network webpage and on the IDAN website. The 1970 British Cohort Study: Age 51, Sweep 11 Geographical Identifiers, 2021 Census Boundaries, 2021-2024: Secure Access includes the following variables:

CountryDecember 2020 RegionMay 2023 WardJanuary 2003 Census Area Statistics WardApril 2023 Local AuthorityJuly 2024 Westminster Parliamentary ConstituencyIdex of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) Overall Rank England 2019, Scotland 2020, Wales 2019, Northern Ireland 2017IMD Overall Rank Decile2021 Output Area2021 Lower Super Output Area2021 Middle Super Output Area

Scotland’s Census is the official count of every person and household in the country. There has been a census in Scotland every 10 years since 1801, except 1941. The 2021 census in Scotland was moved to 2022 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.The answers people give to census questions help build up a picture of the population. Government and other service providers rely on census data to make important decisions.The census provides detailed information about Scotland's population, covering topics such as:type of accommodationhousehold relationshipsage, sex and healthemployment, education and qualificationsreligion and ethnic groupownership or access to a car The Data, Research, and Innovation Team have created a profile for each Multi-member Ward within the Stirling Council area.

This dataset contains Adjustment Weights for the 1891-1911 England and Wales censuses and corresponds to Supplementary material for the paper "The Population of Non-corporate Business Proprietors in England and Wales 1891-1911", by Bennett, Robert J., Montebruno, Piero, Smith, Harry J. as an outcome of the ESRC project ES/M010953: Drivers of Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses PI Prof. Robert J. Bennett.

The material consists of three raw text files

1. 1891 Employment status & Weights
2. 1901 Employment status & Weights
3. 1911 Employment status & Weights

Each file has the three following variables:

1. newRecID: the ID for I-CEM2 as in Higgs, Edward and Schürer, Kevin (University of Essex) (2014) The Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM) UKDA, SN-7481; K. Schürer, E. Higgs, A.M. Reid, E.M Garrett, Integrated Census Microdata, 1851-1911, version V. 2 (I-CeM.2), (2016) [data collection] UK Data Service SN: 7481

2. Employment status: 1 Worker 2 Employer 3 Own-account

3. Weights: the inverse of the probability of giving an answer to the Employment Status question of the censuses by Sex and Relationship to the head of the family.

A detailed explanation of how these weights were calculated and how to use them in the context of data analysis of this censuses can be found in the accompanying working paper, Montebruno, Piero (2018) ‘Adjustment Weights 1891-1911: Weights to adjust entrepreneurs taking account of non-response and misallocation bias in Censuses 1891-1911’, Working Paper 11: ESRC project ES/M010953: ‘Drivers of Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses’, University of Cambridge, Department of Geography and Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure.

The files can be opened by any text editor, database management system (Access) or statistical package (Stata, SPSS)

This dataset should be cited as Adjustment Weights 1891-1911, "The Population of Non-corporate Business Proprietors in England and Wales 1891-1911", by Bennett, Robert J., Montebruno, Piero, Smith, Harry J. Please cite using its DOI.

A data set of cross-nationally comparable microdata samples for 15 Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) countries (Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, USA) based on the 1990 national population and housing censuses in countries of Europe and North America to study the social and economic conditions of older persons. These samples have been designed to allow research on a wide range of issues related to aging, as well as on other social phenomena. A common set of nomenclatures and classifications, derived on the basis of a study of census data comparability in Europe and North America, was adopted as a standard for recoding. This series was formerly called Dynamics of Population Aging in ECE Countries. The recommendations regarding the design and size of the samples drawn from the 1990 round of censuses envisaged: (1) drawing individual-based samples of about one million persons; (2) progressive oversampling with age in order to ensure sufficient representation of various categories of older people; and (3) retaining information on all persons co-residing in the sampled individual''''s dwelling unit. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania provided the entire population over age 50, while Finland sampled it with progressive over-sampling. Canada, Italy, Russia, Turkey, UK, and the US provided samples that had not been drawn specially for this project, and cover the entire population without over-sampling. Given its wide user base, the US 1990 PUMS was not recoded. Instead, PAU offers mapping modules, which recode the PUMS variables into the project''''s classifications, nomenclatures, and coding schemes. Because of the high sampling density, these data cover various small groups of older people; contain as much geographic detail as possible under each country''''s confidentiality requirements; include more extensive information on housing conditions than many other data sources; and provide information for a number of countries whose data were not accessible until recently. Data Availability: Eight of the fifteen participating countries have signed the standard data release agreement making their data available through NACDA/ICPSR (see links below). Hungary and Switzerland require a clearance to be obtained from their national statistical offices for the use of microdata, however the documents signed between the PAU and these countries include clauses stipulating that, in general, all scholars interested in social research will be granted access. Russia requested that certain provisions for archiving the microdata samples be removed from its data release arrangement. The PAU has an agreement with several British scholars to facilitate access to the 1991 UK data through collaborative arrangements. Statistics Canada and the Italian Institute of statistics (ISTAT) provide access to data from Canada and Italy, respectively. * Dates of Study: 1989-1992 * Study Features: International, Minority Oversamples * Sample Size: Approx. 1 million/country Links: * Bulgaria (1992), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/02200 * Czech Republic (1991), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/06857 * Estonia (1989), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/06780 * Finland (1990), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/06797 * Romania (1992), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/06900 * Latvia (1989), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/02572 * Lithuania (1989), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/03952 * Turkey (1990), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/03292 * U.S. (1990), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/06219