Population and Society

Last updated on Monday 22nd May 2023

Our Population and Society domain covers statistics on the size and geographic spread of the population, on the factors driving population change (including births, deaths and migration), and on people’s lifestyles and culture, including sport, language, and identity.

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted how important it is to understand how we are living and engaging in UK society. We want to uphold public confidence in the data and statistics that we cover, particularly at this time.

We are monitoring statistics relating to COVID-19, working with producers to ensure the statistics meet the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics, and responding to users queries and concerns on statistical matters. For more information on OSR’s work during the period of the pandemic, visit our dedicated COVID-19 page.

Our key priorities are to work to make sure that data and statistics are of sufficient quality and value to reliably support public debate and inform decision making for a wide range of stakeholders. We will aim to do this through looking at how statistics and data serve as evidence for understanding key life events and personal wellbeing, including issues of loneliness and social isolation. We will continue our assessment of the 2021 Censuses and our ongoing engagement with producers on developments and transformations to migration statistics and population estimates and projections. We will continue our engagement on the review of the DCMS sector definitions. We will also be looking at the equality and inclusion agenda, in line with wider organisational aims.

We have been working on a compliance check for the Scottish Household survey to cover two perspectives. The first is the introduction of a gender identity question to the survey in 2018 and the second is the more recent move from face-to-face interviews to an alternative means of collection given the COVID-19 pandemic. We had planned to publish the outcome of both reviews in April 2022 however we have faced some minor delays. We are working to get the outcome of our work finalised at the earliest opportunity.

We always welcome hearing from users of statistics about your experiences, your data needs and how data and statistics can be improved. If you would like to speak to us, please get in touch: Catherine Davies, Gillian Fairbairn, Claire Mokrysz, and Emma Harrison,

Planned Work

ProjectGeographyProject TypeTimescale
2022 Census (including administrative data sources) (National Records of Scotland)ScotlandAssessmentContinuing from 2021/22
2021 Census (including administrative data sources) (Office for National Statistics)England and WalesAssessment: Phase 2Continuing from 2021/22
2021 Census (including administrative data sources) (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency)Northern IrelandAssessment: Phase 2Continuing from 2021/22
Suicide Statistics in Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency)Northern IrelandCompliance CheckContinuing from 2021/22
Population Estimates and Projections (Office for National Statistics)EnglandCompliance CheckContinuing from 2021/22
Scottish Household Survey (Scottish Government)ScotlandCompliance CheckContinuing from 2021/22
Wellbeing in Wales statistics (Welsh Government)WalesAssessmentNot yet started
Northern Ireland Wellbeing statistics (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency)Northern IrelandAssessmentNot yet started
Migration statistics (Office for National Statistics)United KingdomCompliance CheckContinuing from 2021/22
Loneliness statisticsUnited KingdomSystemic Review: Phase 2Continuing from 2021/22

Published Correspondence – Population and society domain

Publications – Population and society domain

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