Closed consultation

The future of population and migration statistics in England and Wales

From:: Office for National Statistics
Published: 17 August 2023
Last updated: 21 December 2023 — See all updates

Applies to England and Wales

Detail of feedback received

We have published a consultation update (PDF 150.6 kB pdf) which details the number of consultation responses by sector and outlines how we engaged with users of population and migration statistics both before and during the consultation. It also explains how we are carrying out our analysis of the responses.

Responses to the consultation will inform a recommendation to government from the UK Statistics Authority, on the advice of the National Statistician. This recommendation will detail how the Office for National Statistics (ONS) should produce statistics about population and migration in England and Wales in the future, based on user need. An analysis of the consultation responses will be published alongside the recommendation in 2024.

For more information on our research to date please visit our Research outputs using administrative data webpage.

Summary

At the Office for National Statistics (ONS), we want your views on our ambitious plans for the transformation of our population and migration statistics. These statistics cover a wide range of areas, including household characteristics, employment, health, religion and international migration.

This consultation was held on another website.

This consultation ran from
29 June 2023 to 11:59pm on 26 October 2023

Consultation description

High-quality, timely population statistics are essential to ensure people get the services and support they need within communities and nationwide. We are consulting to ensure that the population and migration statistics and analysis we produce continue to meet the changing needs of policy makers, citizens, and other data users. Our statistics should give you frequent, clear, timely and detailed insights into society. We also want to improve the coverage and accuracy of our statistics over time. To make sure that we meet your needs, we need your feedback on our proposals.

The consultation document explains the ONS’s proposals to create a sustainable system for producing essential, up-to-date statistics about the population. To do this, the system would primarily use administrative data such as tax or benefit data, complemented by survey data and a wider range of data sources. This could radically improve the statistics that the ONS produces each year and could replace the current reliance on the census every ten years. This consultation is seeking views on how these proposals meet the needs of users of ONS statistics compared to a system based on a census.

This consultation is also available in Welsh.

Documents

Future of Population and Migration Statistics Consultation

PDF, 1.3 MB, 67 pages

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