16 December 2004
The Census Dissemination Unit (CDU) at MIMAS, based within the University
of Manchester, is pleased to announce the release of the Key Statistics
component of the aggregate outputs from the 2001 UK Census for Northern
Ireland through its Casweb interface at http://census.ac.uk/casweb.
This release has been slightly delayed due to additional work required to produce a modified framework structure for Key Statistics table 25 on migration, in order to provide an integrated structure for the separate data provided for different geographical levels for this table by The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).
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IMPORTANT - USERS PLEASE NOTE
The structure of the SuperTABLE CD's, containing census outputs released
by NISRA, results in several repetitions of data for each census table,
due to the files containing data for each geographical level also containing
data for all higher levels. Thus, files of data at output area (OA) level
also contain data for wards, district councils and Northern Ireland.
Files at ward level also contain data for district councils and Northern
Ireland, and so on. Unfortunately, the Small Cell Adjustment methodology
employed as part of disclosure control measures by The Northern Ireland
Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) - see http://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census/censusmethodology/disclosure.html
- has been applied independently to these repetitions, resulting in many
instances of multiple differing versions of the same datasets.
For example, values for the District Council of Strabane for variables from Key Statistics table 6 (Ethnicity)
"95ZZ","Strabane",38248,38054,53,64,41,0,0,3,3,3,6,10,11
- Data from output area level file
"
95ZZ","Strabane",38251,38054,53,64,41,3,0,3,3,3,6,10,11
- Data from ward level file
"
95ZZ","Strabane",38245,38054,53,64,41,0,0,0,3,3,6,10,11
- Data from district council level file
Each of these different versions is equally 'correct'. As it was obviously necessary to decide which of the 'correct' versions to provide to users via Casweb, a policy decision was made to always take data from files at the lowest level of geography available for any table, as these also contain data for all higher geographies within the same file. Users may find that other sources of 2001 Census data are providing access to one of the other 'correct' versions of the data, which may result in differences between data obtained from different sources.
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It is intended to follow this release with the remaining components of the aggregate outputs from the 2001 Census for Northern Ireland as quickly as the processing and quality assurance of the data will allow. A release schedule is available at http://cdu.mimas.ac.uk/schedule.htm. Digital boundary data from the 2001 Census will be incorporated into Casweb and made available to users following the release of numerical outputs. Further information on outputs from the 2001 UK Census can be obtained from the census pages of the websites of the national statistical agencies:
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/default.asp
The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS)
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosweb/grosweb.nsf/pages/censushm
The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)
http://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census/start.html
Casweb is available using Athens authentication to all members and affiliates of UK Higher and Further Education institutions. It aims to meet their specific requirements by providing:
* An easy-to-use interface that enables users with varying levels of
skill and experience to understand and make selections from the available
census data by guiding them through a series of simple steps.
* Integrated access to census data for the whole UK, and from a series
of recent UK Censuses.
* Updated access to corrected or re-supplied data as soon as it becomes
available.
* Numerical census data combined with corresponding digital boundary
data in a range of standard GIS formats
* The ability to quickly download large subsets of census data, together
with accompanying metadata, in a range of formats suitable for upload
into most kinds of analytical software for further analysis.
This unique combination of facilities is not available from any other currently available online interface to UK Census data.
We have endeavoured to provide access to this data through Casweb as quickly as has been possible. As a result, please note that aspects of the 2001 Census elements of the Casweb interface are still under development, and may be subject to change.
Please direct any comments or queries about Casweb or other aspects of CDU services to:
MIMAS Census Helpdesk
E-mail - census@mimas.ac.uk
Telephone - 0161 275 6109
Details of all Census Dissemination Unit services can be found on the CDU website at http://census.ac.uk/cdu.
Information about the Athens authentication system is available from the Census Registration Service website at http://census.data-archive.ac.uk.
Information about the full range of census-related resources available
as part of the ESRC/JISC 2001 Census of Population Programme can be found
at http://census.ac.uk.
