Restoring Confidence, Improving Quality: Our plans for economic statistics and ONS surveys

Data

Restoring Confidence, Improving Quality: Our plans for economic statistics and ONS surveys

We recognise that in recent years some of our key economic statistics have not met users’ expectations on quality and trustworthiness. Today we have published two detailed plans to urgently improve the quality of our key economic outputs and the surveys underpinning them. As Acting Director General for Economic Statistics Grant Fitzner explains, these include improvements in data collection and statistical production and address underlying resourcing issues to add resilience for the future.      

Data linkage to shine new light on UK labour market

Categories: ONS
Crowds of people walking through a busy street

Data from surveys and from ‘administrative’ sources – such as tax data – can both offer important insight. Recently the ONS has been advancing its work on ‘data linkage’, which allows the information from different data sources to be combined to create new economic indicators. In this post Christina Palmou writes about how the linking of ONS of business survey records with PAYE data from HMRC is helping to create a richer picture of the UK Labour Market 

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The potential future direction of local population change: the power of variant projections

Categories: Census, Education, Housing, ONS, Population

The Office for National Statistics produces subnational population projections (SNPPs) to give users an indication of the potential future population size of English local authorities and health geographies. Today we’ve released our 2022-based SNPPs which will be widely used in planning, for example, health, education and housing. We don’t know exactly what will happen in a local area in 10- or 20-years’ time, so offer a range of scenarios, or variants, so decision makers can use the right projection for their needs. In today’s bulletin, we focus on the ‘migration category variant’. James Robards explains what this is and why we’re using this approach.

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The Nation in Numbers: How we count the population

Categories: Data, ONS, Population

Population statistics aren’t just about counting people—they’re about understanding the nature of our society and its needs.  But how are these figures created, and what makes them reliable? 

In our next Bringing Data to Life webinar, taking place on Tuesday 24 June from 4pm to 5pm, we’re taking a closer look at these fundamental statistics. From measuring today’s population to modelling tomorrow’s needs, this session introduces the people, methods and data that underpin key decisions across the UK. 

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Encouraging greater collaboration: Introducing StatsUserNetwork

Categories: Data, ONS, Research
Image of a person inputting data

The relationship between statistics producers and users has often relied on structured, one-way channels. Now a new platform from the ONS is set to change that dynamic, encouraging greater collaboration between those who produce the statistics and those who depend on them. In this blog Dan Grace explains what the new StatsUserNetwork offers, who it’s for, and the potential it unlocks for anyone working with official statistics. 

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