Results from the UK censuses are processed by the national statistical agencies to provide a rich range of data products, offering an unrivalled wealth of statistical and geographical detail on the UK population. The ESRC/JISC Census Programme provides access and expert support for research users of the census, with the most comprehensive holdings of computer-readable census outputs since 1971, mostly available online. The aim of this session is to explain the variety of data resources available and to demonstrate some of the ways in which the programme can support your research needs. Following an overview of census essentials by the programme coordinator, the session will take the form of a series of case studies of how research users can take advantage of the principal census data resources:

Aggregate statistics

Keith Cole, University of Manchester
Digital boundary data

James Crone, University of Edinburgh
Interaction data

John Stillwell and Oliver Duke-Williams, University of Leeds
Samples of Anonymised Records

Ed Fieldhouse and Jo Wathan, University of Manchester
ONS and Scottish Longitudinal Studies

Emily Grundy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Paul Boyle, University of St Andrews
Longitudinal Studies Centre - Scotland

Case studies will be presented by expert staff from the programme's data support units, who will also be available to answer delegates' questions.

Chair: Tony Coxon, University of Edinburgh

Introduction to longitudinal studies in the UK

Nick Buck, Director of ULSC, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex

The UK has an extremely rich portfolio of longitudinal studies which are available to all social scientists. This presentation will introduce the rationale which underlies longitudinal research methods and briefly indicate the type of research contribution which longitudinal studies have been uniquely able to make. It will present a taxonomy of longitudinal studies in UK , including panel studies, birth cohort studies, other age-focussed studies, and record-linkage based studies, and illustrate the evolution of each main type of study, paying attention to the international context within which they have developed.

How do you choose which longitudinal resource dataset to use?

Jane Elliott, Research Director NCDS and BCS70, Centre for Longitudinal Studies

This presentation will provide some guidance on how to decide which of the many longitudinal data sources is the most appropriate for answering different types of research question. Attention will be paid to the research design of the studies, the main topic areas covered and the composition and size of the sample. The main datasets which will be considered are: The British Household Panel Study: The ONS Longitudinal Study of England and Wales; The Scottish Longitudinal Study; The 1946, 1958 and 1970 cohort studies; the Millennium Cohort Study; the Families and Children Study (DWP); The English Longitudinal Study of Aging and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Training opportunities - What do I need? And where can I get it?

Vernon Gayle, University of Stirling

This session is a brief introduction to training opportunities. It will help you to identify what you might need to know regarding longitudinal analyses. It will increase your awareness of training courses, workshops and seminars. The session will also direct you to suitable internet based resources and highlight appropriate texts and accessible published research.