The Power of the Census

In the second of our features looking at what's on show at this week's Market Research Society conference in Birmingham, MrWeb previews a paper by Keith Dugmore from Demographic Decisions on the 'New Free Data for Researching the UK's Population from the 2001 Census'.

The details to be released this spring and summer from the 2001 Census provide unprecedented detail about the current population of the UK. Usage of the Census to underpin market research has exploded in the last two decades, with the source now regarded as a foundation of area analysis, assessing store locations and targeting local marketing campaigns.

Mr Dugmore explains that there are a number of new features included in the 2001 Census. These include new questions on ethnic groups, religion and general health, the national coverage of the survey, new coding procedures, innovations in geographical coverage (the UK has been divided into roughly 250,000 Output Areas giving unprecedented detail down to neighbourhoods of roughly 230 people) and finally, free access to the data available via the Internet for reuse at little or no cost in an attempt by the government to encourage the growth of the knowledge economy.

After describing the type of information available from the Census, Mr Dugmore puts forward the hypothesis that the Census will change the dynamics of the collection of information. As the new Output Areas provide a common geography based on postcodes, with boundaries and links to other datasets, the permutations of data to create new information will be infinite. The fact that data will be free will also boost usage of the Census, in Mr Dugmore's opinion, to attract new user organizations.

Keith Dugmore is speaking as part of The Census Panel on Wednesday 19 March at 15.10.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.