2011: the first Open census and beyond?

The first results of the 2011 census in England and Wales were released on 16 July 2012, with the standard outputs for the first time being released under an Open Government Licence. More detailed data, including spatial products such as boundaries for output areas, postcode lookup tables and an entirely new geography of workplace zones will be released in phases through the winter and during 2013, along with API access to area-based statistics. The census spatial datasets provide a widely-used infrastructure for the presentation and analysis of population data, including much non-census information. Even as the results continue to be published, there is a strong possibility that 2011 will be the last conventional census, with a variety of alternative collection strategies and linked data sources currently under review by the Office for National Statistics under the banner of “Beyond 2011”. This presentation will consider the 2011 spatial products, review the potential for entirely new uses of Open census datasets and outline some of the research and licensing challenges that lie ahead.Basic20 minute