Duke-Williams, Oliver;
Routsis, Vassilis;
(2023)
UK Census 2021 Challenges and data access: data on the LGBTQ+ population and privacy.
Presented at: IASSIST Conference 2023, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
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Abstract
The UK Data Service (UKDS) is the flagship project in UK research infrastructure. It is a collaboration between the universities of Essex, Manchester, Southampton, UCL, Edinburgh and Jisc, and it provides a wide range of social sciences, humanities, and economic research data. Part of the data offered by UKDS is census data. The Office for National Statistics has partnered with UKDS to disseminate 2011 and 2021 census data, trusting it with securing access to safeguarded tables. The 2021 census has been unique because it took place amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which is expected to have affected the given responses. For these reasons, Scotland decided to delay its census by one year to 2022, which has made harmonising census data across the UK almost impossible. This paper will discuss the challenges and peculiarities of the 2021 census in the UK and will demonstrate how UKDS handles data management and access to census data. As the first data derived from the 2021 census began hitting the headlines in late November 2022, most data are yet to be released. The paper will present some of the privacy measures implemented to protect persons’ identities in areas with few people. In addition, it will present findings on gender identity and sexual orientation, which were introduced for the first time in the UK census history. The UKDS is currently developing new tools to modernise its census delivery services. The paper will present some of these applications, with the most emphasis on introducing the census origin and destination data API and the new user interface, both currently under heavy development. These tools will be made available after ONS releases the related data, expected in Q2 2023. The IASSIST conference will be the first opportunity to present them to the public.
| Type: | Conference item (Presentation) |
|---|---|
| Title: | UK Census 2021 Challenges and data access: data on the LGBTQ+ population and privacy |
| Event: | IASSIST Conference 2023 |
| Location: | Philadelphia, PA, USA |
| Dates: | 30 May - 02 June 2023 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://iassistdata.org/conferences/iassist2023/ |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | census, flow data, lgbtq+, access, privacy |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of Information Studies |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10171429 |
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