2011 Census Microdata Teaching File for Northern Ireland

19,862 anonymized individual records from the 2011 Census in Northern Ireland, representing approximately 1% of the usual resident population. The Office for National Statistics harmonized this teaching file with similar releases for England and Wales. It provides unit-record level data on seventeen characteristics like sex, age, and marital status for educational purposes.

Use Cases

• Building statistical models based on individual-level demographic characteristics.
• Teaching data analysis concepts using real, anonymized census microdata.
• Gaining insight into the structure and format of Sample of Anonymised Records (SARs) products.
• Analyzing demographic patterns for the Northern Ireland population based on the 2011 Census.

Strengths

• Contains 19,862 individual unit records, providing a substantial sample for analysis.
• Harmonized with equivalent teaching files for England and Wales, facilitating comparative study.
• Includes seventeen separate characteristics per individual, such as sex, age, and marital status.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to a single census in 2011.

Provenance

Source

OpenDataNI, likely originating from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and the Office for National Statistics.

Collection Method

A 1% sample of anonymized records from the 2011 Census of the usual resident population in Northern Ireland.

Time Range

Census day, 27 March 2011.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:32:32.019479; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.