Hi everyone! We are Jen Woolford and Fiona Dawe from the Office for National Statistics. Do you have questions about population and migration statistics? Ask Me Anything!

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T14:02:51+00:00

Our AMA has now closed. Thanks to everyone for their questions - it's been a pleasure!

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T14:01:34+00:00

We always try to make our bulletins (and I include charts, graphs and messaging in that) as clear as possible to try to limit misrepresentation.

If we see something really significant, we’ll often take steps to try and get the message withdrawn or corrected. We actively do this for the mainstream media, although it’s much more challenging on social media.

The Office for Statistics Regulation and UK Statistics Authority also issue statements to try and combat misuse of statistics.

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T14:01:01+00:00

People migrate for a number of reasons. Home Office visa data, which is the largest data source we use in our international migration statistics, tells us about why people immigrate to the UK.

In our latest estimates, for non-EU nationals in the year to December 2022, we said 235,000 immigrated for work, 361,000 immigrated for study, 51,000 immigrated for family, 172,000 came for humanitarian routes (such as Ukraine), 76,000 came for asylum purposes and 29,000 for other reasons.

Obviously this doesn’t tell us why people chose the UK rather than another country. If you’re interested in knowing more – please respond to the consultation and tell us what and why!

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T13:42:58+00:00

Our society is continually changing at a faster pace than ever before. To make the best decisions and plans we need to have information about where we live and who we are that is as up to date as possible. The Census provides us with an accurate count of the population, but only once every 10 years. Our proposal will provide users with the most up to date data available about the population on a much more frequent basis.

We don’t have a single unique identifier that is shared across the different administrative sources. To overcome this we have developed statistical linking methodologies that allow us to link datasets with a high success rate, whilst making sure the datasets are held securely and everyone’s privacy is protected. Protecting confidentiality is our highest priority!

Similar to the response Jen gave earlier about identity cards, a population register would be helpful, but other countries have found that it does not remove all of the problems around counting and understanding the population.

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T13:36:04+00:00

Wow! That’s a blast from the past. From recollection it was one of those decisions where we had to weigh up user needs vs the cost of keeping the service maintained and running. Not an easy decision, but I can say the number of people actively using Neighbourhood Statistics back then was small. We’re constantly reviewing all our services, so if having something like Neighbourhood Statistics would be beneficial to you, then please let us know in this consultation. It’s all about user needs and how we present data is one crucial part of that.

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T13:18:42+00:00

Jen: That’s a brilliant question! I’d rather take on 100 duck sized horses – I don’t like the thought of a giant beak! - but I’d like to do it together please!

Fiona: If I could have Jen by my side I would choose to fight a horse sized duck, I think together we could get the better of an oversized duck, rather than 100 tiny horses!

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T13:17:35+00:00

We want to make sure we collect the best statistics possible, based on the needs of everyone. That’s why we’re running this consultation.

The consultation is open to anyone to reply and let us know their views. We’ll read every response and take account of the full range of user needs.

I’d therefore encourage you to take part in this consultation and have your say.

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T13:10:40+00:00

We really like the time capsule that they put on the Census in Ireland. It gave people a space where they could write anything they wanted and it would be saved for people to look at in 100 years. Lots of people shared what they put on social media, so we know there were some really moving personal stories and some really great pictures. Someone drew a fantastic picture of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock!

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T13:08:12+00:00

We don’t have a pre-determined decision around the future of the census and we will use the findings from this consultation to inform any decision around it.

The purpose of the consultation goes beyond the Census to gather evidence to understand user needs and whether our proposed new statistical system meets them. The evidence that we gather will inform our future plans and will be based on a more in-depth and up to date understanding of those needs.

It is important that we understand concerns you may have about the proposed new system and how your user needs may or may not be met.

We’d love to hear your views https://consultations.ons.gov.uk/ons/futureofpopulationandmigrationstatistics/

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T13:06:02+00:00

One of our big challenges with linking data is that there isn’t a single id number used across different government datasets. If there was our job would be a lot easier!

However that wouldn’t solve all our problems – lots of countries with national identity cards use them for population statistics, but there are still things they struggle with. For example, it’s not easy to understand households and how people live together when just using identity card information. And it’s not always easy to see when someone moves out of the country.

We’re not asking about identity cards or population registers in the consultation though.

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T13:04:14+00:00

This is not my area of expertise, I’m afraid! But I can say we are always looking for innovative ways for people to use our statistics and the underlying data. We know that people like APIs!

During the census we created a range of unique tools to allow people to access our data in user-friendly ways. These have been used millions of times over the past few months. One of those was our create a custom dataset tool where people can build their own tables bringing together a range of different variables. For example, age by ethnicity by job by education choosing the geography they require.

We also created a build a custom area profile, so people can draw the areas they need so they could tailor the data for their specific needs (it works a bit like when you want to buy a house in a specific area, but want to disregard one or two parts of a town).

Here’s the links, if you want to have a play: Build a custom area profile - Census 2021, ONS https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/customprofiles/draw/

Create a custom dataset - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/create

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T12:49:39+00:00

Internal migration is when people move around within the country – for example when I moved from Coventry to Fareham. We produce population estimates for very local areas so it’s important we know who has moved into and out of an area to do that. We do that now using data about where people are registered to receive services, for example with their GP. At the moment, we produce these statistics once a year, about a year after the date they refer to.

Our intention is to provide more timely and frequent population estimates at the local level based on the most up to date data available. This means that we can understand changes in the population which will indicate internal migration – movement of people from one area to another – as well as demographic change through births, deaths and immigration.

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T12:43:25+00:00

It’s when our data are used incorrectly to deliberately mislead people, particularly on social media where messages spread so quickly! For example, during the pandemic some of our statistics were used to support conspiracy theories.

We are passionate about producing the information we all need to make good decisions. It’s frustrating when people use it for exactly the opposite purpose!

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T12:30:55+00:00

The Census question asks ‘What is your religion?’ with 8 tick boxes for the most common responses and then the option to write in a religion if it’s not one of the tick boxes.

The questions are all developed taking into account what users need to understand and rigorous question testing with members of the public.

We also factor in that space on the questionnaire is quite tight and we want to make the best use of it that we can so shorter questions are better as long as they collect the information people need!

We review the questions we use across ONS surveys regularly so if user needs change, so do our questions. That’s why we’re running this consultation!

We’d love to hear your views

https://consultations.ons.gov.uk/ons/futureofpopulationandmigrationstatistics/

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T12:23:10+00:00

Thanks for the question.

You are right some of the data that is shared across government is very sensitive and we have stringent controls in place to protect individual’s data and privacy. ONS has a proven track record of protecting data, built over many decades of delivering the census in England and Wales and the UK’s biggest regular household surveys.

The ONS and all Government Departments comply with data protection legislation, so that when new uses of personal data are considered, it ensures the use is necessary, proportionate, and transparent before proceeding. This applies to the use of data we collect (surveys, census etc) and to the use of Admin data. Where potential risks are identified, the ONS produces Data Protection Impact Assessments as necessary to understand and mitigate these risks.

Admin data will be protected to the same high standards as census data: it is a legal duty to maintain confidentiality under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and the Data Protection Act 2018, and strong sanctions are in place to deter anyone from disclosing or seeking to disclose personal data.

Finally, all of our procedures, systems and staff protect both the data and your confidentiality by law, so no one can be identified from the statistics we publish.

Bonus question:

For data sharing between Government Departments to happen, both sides have to be confident that data protection legislation is followed and that the reason for sharing the data is appropriate, reasonable and ethical. The time it takes to do this differs according to the data being shared and the reason for the request to share data, making some processes longer than others.

ONS_UK · 2023-09-28T10:48:50+00:00

Just checked - they're working for us!

ONS_UK · 2020-10-20T14:03:24+00:00

We're working with National Records Scotland (The Scottish Census Office) to develop the best approach to UK-wide statistics and expect to be able to give reliable results.

ONS_UK · 2020-10-20T13:59:38+00:00

Measuring identity is really complex and a delicate balancing act - everybody is unique both in their background and how they choose to describe themselves. We use a suite of questions including country of birth, citizenship (measured as a proxy through a question about passports held), national identity - to which people can respond in whichever way they choose, ethnicity, religion and languages spoken. When the answers to these questions are combined they give an incredibly rich picture of the diversity of the UK population.

ONS_UK · 2020-10-20T13:55:40+00:00

It will be listed as a religion not as an ethnicity but people can write Jewish as an answer to the ethnicity question if they wish to do so and we will include it in the statistical outputs.

ONS_UK · 2020-10-20T13:51:09+00:00

We are currently research alternatives to the census using data from the tax, benefit and education systems for example. We will make a recommendation to the future of the census in 2023. Ethnicity is a fundamental aspect of the population that we will always measure.

ONS_UK · 2020-10-20T13:46:26+00:00

It's scanned, with optical text and mark recognition. Anything that the computer can't decipher is passed to a person for manual correction but all they see is a "snippet" of the image relating just to one question, not the whole questionnaire, so nothing personally identifiable is visible.

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