2011 UK Census

One such question asked….

Question We are considering whether there is sufficient demand for census data to also be made available in machine readable format (e.g. CSV). If this is a requirement please indicate why (Tick all that apply).

Of the 478 users who answered this question only 85 said they would not have a requirement for machine readable output.

Of the remaining 393, their reasons for needing this form of output were

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Almost a decade on from the last census there clearly remains a strong user demand for 2011 Census output to be made available in a machine readable form.

Commercial users were most likely to say this was a requirement, while members of the public, third sector and central government users were the most likely to say this facility was not needed.

The reasons that users gave for wanting such output seem largely due to positive factors - this kind of formatting will help and enable users to do the things they want with the data - rather than negative - possible user perception that web or other delivery systems might fail.

This prompts a further question - if users want data in a machine readable format, but are not in general worried about the failure of web delivery systems, will the export and delivery of a machine readable form via a web delivery service be an acceptable alternative or complimentary channel to delivery via fixed hard media?

The results from another question on the questionnaire provide some possible insight. We asked ….

Question Thinking about a 2011 Census Web dissemination system
a) How useful would you find the following types of functionality and flexibility?
b) What level of priority (high, medium, low) would you give these types of functionality?

We see that not only do more than 90 per cent of respondees say that the option to download CSV or other such data formats will be 'very useful' or 'of some use', but that 64 per cent see this as a high priority feature.

So, let's take a quick look at the two user sectors that most indicated a lack of trust or interest in high volume downloading using web services. Local government & partners were the most likely to indicate a lack of trust in web systems (18 responses, 8 per cent of all user sector responses) or an unwillingness to download from the web (17 responses, 8 per cent of all user sector responses).

Commercial sector users were the second most likely to indicate a lack of trust in web systems (10 responses, 20 per cent of all commercial user responses) or an unwillingness to download from the web (6 responses, 12 per cent of all commercial user responses).

Despite this lack of trust in using such a service however, both user groups (93 per cent for local government and 98 per cent for commercial user respondees) still think it will be 'very useful' or 'of some use', and both (57 per cent for local government and 86 per cent for commercial) think it is a high priority.

As technological and web systems have continued to improve over the life cycle of the Census, developments in online delivery have emerged at the forefront of our thinking when developing plans for Census output. This will remain so into the next decade. There are obvious advantages to the notion of providing a web stream as an alternative to delivery of large volume machine readable data in hard media - most notably the facility to provide a 'live' update stream delivering intermittent updates of supplemental or revised data.

Still, perhaps at the moment a willingness for reliance on the new generation of online services is not as widespread or accepted as it may be in a few years time, and so a parallel delivery service incorporating older media will need to be maintained for the 2011 Census.

If you have more detailed opinions in this area then please add comments or let us know.

Also, we have not yet discussed any actual data format alternatives to simple CSV. Parts of our overall output development plans, specifically for web systems, will intrinsically involve XML or similar specialist derivatives designed to serve in a statistical environment. So, we are always keen to hear user views of such data exchange formats and methods, particularly any user experiences in relation to the exchange of high volumes of data.

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