Data and Statistics for Social Sciences: Home

• For the first time ever in a census of England and Wales, fewer than half of the population (46.2%) described themselves as ‘Christian’. This represented a 13.1 percentage point decrease from the previous census in 2011 (down from 59.3%).
• While ‘Christian’ remained the largest religious group, ‘No religion’ was the second largest group, increasing from 25.2% in 2011 to 37.2% in the 2021 census. The percentage of people describing themselves as ‘Muslim’ also increased (from 4.9% in 2011 to 6.5% in 2021), as did the percentage identifying as ‘Hindu’ (from 1.5% in 2011 to 1.7% in 2021).
• Those indicating their ethnic group as ‘White’ declined from 86% in the 2011 census to 81.7% in 2021. The second largest ethnic group in the 2021 census was ‘Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh’, accounting for 9.3% of the population.
• There was a significant rise in the percentage of people choosing a ‘British only’ national identity, increasing from 19.1% in 2011 to 54.8% in the 2021 census. Those choosing an ‘English only’ identity fell from 57.7% in 2011 to just 14.9% in 2021. Although some of this change may be genuine, it may also reflect a change in the question structure.

• Clear information about the UK Data Service and our data collection.
• Resources for dissertation students on secondary analysis, survey data and finding the right data for your project.
• Details of our Dissertation Award for undergraduates.

UKDS will be hosting a number of free events to help undergraduate students at all levels learn more about available data and plan projects. Browse the events pages for a full list of what is available.

The annual Dissertation Award is open for 2022-2023. The UK Data Service Dissertation Award recognises students who use data from the UK Data Service in their undergraduate dissertations. Awards will be given to the three best dissertations from this academic year. Each winning entry will receive £300 and be publicised via our website, blog and newsletter (you can read about last year’s winners here). This year’s deadline for submissions is 12:00 (noon) on 28 June 2023. Visit this year’s award launch page for information about how to apply.