Welcome
Welcome to the Geodemographics Knowledge Base, a comprehensive directory of hand-selected websites for people interested in the application of geodemographics and geo-spatial analysis. The site has been produced by the Census and Geodemographics Group of MRS, the world’s largest association representing providers and users of market, social, and opinion research, and business intelligence.
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What's new?
Census outputs online consultation and blog - second phase
18 December -The online Census Output consultation is back with a new website and blog with the aim to publish results and analysis of the online survey, provide commentary and Census views on the findings and provide specific user feedback to Census views. As well as the blog and forum, users will be able to edit and contribute new content as part of the Census Output wiki.
One-day conference - How Geodemographics is being applied across an ever expanding Europe, 1 April 2009
18 December -As organisations expand to operate across national boundaries, market targeting methodologies must follow this expansion. The conference, to be held at the Society of Chemical Industry in London, will look at how geodemographics is being used across Europe to help organisations to optimise the definition of target markets.
Analysing change over time for small areas
16 December -The Neighbourhood Statistics service has launched an online guide to analyse change over time and help answer questions such as "has my area improved since last year?" or "is the gap between our disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged areas reducing?".
The 2011 Census of Population and Housing White Paper published
11 December -The 2011 Census of Population and Housing White Paper ' Helping to shape tomorrow' announcing the UK Statistics Authority's proposals for the 2011 Census in England and Wales is published today. Census day will be 27 March 2011 under proposals published in the Government White Paper.
www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/2011-census-project/legislation
Social Marketing and Segmentation Seminar
18 November - A Joint LARIA/LGA Seminar to be held in London on Wednesday 10 December 2008 and Manchester on Wednesday 28 January 2009. The seminar will look at the importance of Social Marketing and Segmentation as a way to gain a deeper understanding and insight into the disparate needs of our local communities and population. It includes a session on geodemographics as a tool for health intelligence.
Understanding Society
28 October - The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has recently launched Understanding Society, the world's largest ever household longitudinal study. Understanding Society will collect information from 100,000 individuals, across 40,000 households from across the country to enhance the understanding of the long term effects of social and economic change, and will provide tools to study the impact of policy interventions on the well being of the UK population.
Crime surveys user meeting - 9 December 2008
14 October - The meeting will provide a forum for the exchange of information and views between users and producers of the Government Crime and Victimisation Survey datasets. It is aimed primarily at users and potential users of survey microdata.
New site section - Perceptions & Trust
29 September - This section contains information on sites giving the results from market or other research into perceptions and trust about data and statistics, especially the trust in official statistics and concerns about privacy and data protection.
2011 Census Commitment to confidentiality and data security
29 August - ONS confirms its overriding commitment to ensuring the confidentiality of personal Census data for a period of 100 years, and its use strictly for statistical purposes only.
CommuterView - interactive maps of commuter flows
18 June - The ONS Data
Visualisation Centre and the ONS Neighbourhood Statistics Service have
recently launched CommuterView on DVD.
CommuterView takes Census data and enables users to create interactive maps showing flows of commuters within Super Output Areas in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and Data Zones or Intermediate Zones in Scotland. Copies of the DVD are available by emailing better.info@ons.gov.uk
UK travel flows now available from Nomis
18 June - New ward travel flows dataset from the 2001 Census can now be viewed and downloaded free of charge. Tables show daily flows of workers from residence to place of work for all local authorities and wards in Great Britain, and parliamentary constituencies and wards in Northern Ireland. They also include breakdowns of the characteristics of the people in the flows.
Scotland moves 2011 census online
17 June - The Public are to be given an internet option when filling in the country's next population survey in 2011. Residents in West Edinburgh, Lewis and Harris will be the first in the UK to test the new option when they take part in the 2009 census rehearsal.
Intellectual property rows over public-sector data stand in the way of an accurate population count
06 June - The Guardian reports on the Treasury Select Committee report, Counting the Population, and its recommendation that the next census, in March 2011, "be the last census in the UK where the population is counted through the collection of census forms.": It also warns of the shortcoming in national address databases, apparently caused by rivalry over the ownership of intellectual property within government.
www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jun/05/freeourdata.whitehall
Date for 2011 UK Census announced
28 March - 27 March 2011 has been chosen as the planned date of the next Census in England and Wales. A rehearsal for the 2011 Census will be carried out in 2009, and three rehearsal areas have also been announced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Joint reporting on demographic statistics
26 February - New measures to improve the way in which existing population and migration statistics are reported across government are introduced today, with the simultaneous publication of a range of demographic data by the ONS and the Home Office. The new initiative aims to ensure that related demographic data from different government departments are presented in a coordinated manner on a limited number of dates throughout the year.
Counting the population - written evidence
18 January - Volume II of Written evidence of House of Commons Treasury Committee investigation into Counting the population published. The report includes comments from the Census & Geodemographics Group of the Market Research Society. Click on the link below to download the pdf.
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmtreasy/183/183ii.pdf
Census drops plan to demand income details
15 January - The Telegraph reports on how following trial runs, a question about earnings has been dropped from the next census after officials concluded that people find the question too intrusive and would not answer it truthfully.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/14/ncensus114.xml
UK travel flows (Local Authorities)
18 December - Travel to work data from the 2001 Census which was previously only available on DVD and required specialist software to use, can now be viewed and downloaded free of charge from the Nomis website. The data is provided in tables that show daily flows of workers from residence to place of work/study for all local authorities in Great Britain and Parliamentary Constituencies in Northern Ireland.
See our "What's New?" Archive
Visit the What's New? Archive for websites added previously to the site.