UK Government Dataset Counts and Sources Over Time

Cabinet Office provides a historical record of dataset counts on data.gov.uk. The data is generated by analyzing nightly dump files to count datasets and determine their source. The record includes a provided code script and was last updated on 2026-07-08.

Use Cases

• Analyze the growth of the UK open data portal based on historical dataset counts.
• Study the distribution of dataset sources (e.g., direct upload, API) mentioned in the description.
• Monitor trends in government data publication activity over time.

Strengths

• Includes a provided code script for reproducibility.
• Uses official nightly dump files from data.gov.uk as a source.
• License is explicitly stated as OGL-UK-3.0.

Limitations

• Row count and column definitions are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• The description lacks specifics on the exact breakdown of dataset sources.
• Freshness should be verified as the last update timestamp is in the future (2026-07-08).

Provenance

Source

Cabinet Office via uk_data platform.

Collection Method

Analysis of nightly dump files from http://data.gov.uk/data/dumps/.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:30:49.626909; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United Kingdom (implied by data.gov.uk).