Subject Guides: Data: a Practical Guide: Core resources

The Datasets and statistics section of our E-resources Guide indexes the core data and stats resources available to members of the University:

E-resources Guide: Datasets and statistics

Here's a summary list of these core resources, many of which the University pays for. There's more information on the E-resources Guide itself. You may need to log in with your University username and password to access some of these sources:

Across the pages of this guide we've curated some other free sources that may be useful. For the most part these aren't resources the University has paid for; they're just things that are out there on the internet. You should therefore think critically about the sources and judge their worth accordingly:

Featured resources
Further resources

Companies House
Official database that houses all UK companies' information, including their filing history.

Management
European Commission Business and Consumer Surveys
Regular harmonised surveys are conducted by the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs for different sectors of the economies in the European Union (EU) and in the applicant countries.
Management Economics

Eurostat This link opens in a new window
The European Commission's official portal to publicly-available social and economic data about EU member states. English, French or German-language interface available.
Topics include Economy and Finance, Population and Social, Industry, trade and services, International trade, and many more.
Economics
The European Commission's official portal to publicly-available social and economic data about EU member states. English, French or German-language interface available.

Accessibility information
Google Dataset Search This link opens in a new window
Google Dataset Search enables the discovery of datasets stored across thousands of repositories on the Web. The search locates files and datasets on the basis of how their owners have classified them as it does not read the content of the files or datasets themselves. You can also use Google Public Data Explorer to explore and communicate large, public-interest datasets via charts and maps.
General
Google Dataset Search enables the discovery of datasets stored across thousands of repositories on the Web. The search locates files and datasets on the basis of how their owners have classified them as it does not read the content of the files or datasets themselves.

You can also use Google Public Data Explorer to explore and communicate large, public-interest datasets via charts and maps.

Accessibility information
National Statistics (Office for National Statistics) This link opens in a new window
The website of the UK Office for National Statistics has the most comprehensive set of UK data on social and economic themes. The site includes full texts of the latest press releases (plus a searchable archive); and a substantial collection of free-to-access online statistical publications, such as "The Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", "Social Trends", "United Kingdom Economic Accounts", and others (usually most recent edition only). Also Census 2001, and the newly developed Neighbourhood Statistics service, providing access to "a vast range of social and economic aggregate data on a consistent small-area geography" (searchable by postcode).

General
The website of the UK Office for National Statistics. Site includes full texts of the latest press releases (plus a searchable archive); and a substantial collection of free-to-access online statistical publications, such as "The Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", "Social Trends", "United Kingdom Economic Accounts", and others (usually most recent edition only). Also Census 2001, and the newly developed Neighbourhood Statistics service, providing access to "a vast range of social and economic aggregate data on a consistent small-area geography" (searchable by postcode).

Accessibility information
OECD iLibrary Statistics This link opens in a new window
Huge database covering the member states of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and other major countries. Includes huge datasets that users can customise accordingly. Allows comparisons over time. Also includes access to the OECD Factbook - a secondary source which is published each year and gives snapshot summaries of that year on all the main themes. The individual nations provide the same data on their own countries but in this database it is brought together so you can compare countries.

General
26 statistical databases from the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Coverage includes national accounts, economic indicators, financial affairs, social expenditure, and further series relating to industry, agriculture, energy, employment, health, migration, development and aid, for all 30 OECD member countries and other major economies.

Each data series has a searchable abstract indicating origin, start date, periodicity, content etc. Data tables can be constructed according to your own specifications for viewing online, then exported into a spreadsheet package for further processing.

For information about OECD Health Data, please see the separate entry.
UK Data Service This link opens in a new window
Not UK only data. This service hosts datasets from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and International Labour Organization. Users can customise the data for their own research needs. To access data you will need to create a personal account.
General
Consolidates and integrates four services established and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS), the Secure Data Service, the Survey Question Bank and elements of the ESRC Census Programme.

The UK Data Service provides a unified point of access to more than 6,000 collections of high quality social and economic data, including UK Census data, government-funded surveys, longitudinal studies, international macrodata, qualitative data and business microdata.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

Accessibility information

Annual Reports
Database that holds many annual reports form over 5,000 companies
General
Datahub
Mix of free and paid resources pulled together into one search for Datasets.
General
DB.NOMICS
Pulls together multiple providers into one search.
Economics
Emerald Insight
Covering multiple subjects, provides a strong starting point with journals and books.
General
Google Public Data
Very general search engine that allows users to search a large number of public databases in one place.
General
Harvard Dataverse
Harvard Dataverse is a repository for research data. Deposit data and code there.
General
ICPSR
Pulls together various studies and other resources.
General
Open Corporates
OpenCorporates is the largest open database of companies and company data in the world, with in excess of 100 million companies in a similarly large number of jurisdictions.
Management
Open Data Network
American focused open datasets search engine. Also has pre-catagorised sections.
General
World Bank Open Data
Free and open access to global development data.
General