HISTORICAL POPULATION RESOURCES AT THE UK DATA ARCHIVE

HISTORICAL POPULATION RESOURCES AT THE UK DATA ARCHIVE ……………………………. . . . . . RICHARD DESWARTE ……………………. . . HEAD OF THE HISTORY DATA SERVICE ESDS SOCIAL HISTORY DATA MANAGER UK DATA ARCHIVE UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX ……………………. . . Supporting the Digital Humanities, TU, Vienna 20 OCTOBER 2010

OVERVIEW ………………………………………………………………. . • Historical population resources: CHCC & histpop • Creation and Development • Usage & Issues • Future ……………………………………………………………………………. . … UK DATA ARCHIVE

CHCC ………………………………………………………………. . • Contemporary and Historical Census Collection (CHCC) was originally a JISC funded project to improve online accessibility to primary census resources. • Contains: • transcription of the 1881 census enumerators' books – 26 million individuals • 2% sample of the 1851 census enumerators’ books – 400 000 individuals • Aggregate-level demographic data – the Great Britain Historical Database & Database of Welsh Historical Statistics • Provides information about the name, address, relationship to the head of household, marital status, age, occupation, birthplace and disabilities of millions of individuals, as well as a large group of derived demographic variables. • Download online subsets of enumerators’ books and specific tables from GBHD & DWHS. • http: //hds. essex. ac. uk/history/data/chcc. asp ……………………………………………………………………………. . … UK DATA ARCHIVE

CHCC ………………………………………………………………. . • Functional but simplistic • Tabular data only; no images of original documents • No historical context • Valuable to expert user but less so for more general user • Limited to UK HE & FE only ……………………………………………………………………………. . … UK DATA ARCHIVE

histpop ………………………………………………………………. . • The Online Historical Population Reports Website provides online access to the complete British population reports for Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1937 • 200, 000 pages of census and registration material for the British Isles as well as ancillary documents from The National Archives, critical essays and transcriptions of important legislation • Provides a wealth of textual and statistical material which offer an in-depth view of the economy, society (through births, deaths and marriages) and medicine during the 19 th and early 20 th centuries. • Direct searching of the content and enhanced browsing through the collection by date or geography • http: //www. histpop. org/ ……………………………………………………………………………. . … UK DATA ARCHIVE

Histpop – Why? ………………………………………………………………. . • Limited availability • Incomplete • Quality of printed sources – damaged • Limited usability • Microfiche and microform – poorly indexed; limited searchability and usability • Disappearing ……………………………………………………………………………. . … UK DATA ARCHIVE

Histpop – Features ………………………………………………………………. . • Browsing • Context • Ancillary documents • Academic essays • Images • Quality • Downloadable PDF or TIFF • Rotate and enlarge • Downloadable tables – machine readable format • Citation • Metadata ……………………………………………………………………………. . … UK DATA ARCHIVE

Histpop – Users ………………………………………………………………. . • Wide-ranging – academic to general public • 3000 unique users & 50 000 page views per month • Research – economics, health, local government, Ph. Ds • Teaching – bespoke historical Census courses, online historical statistics courses ……………………………………………………………………………. . … UK DATA ARCHIVE

Histpop & CHCC - Issues ………………………………………………………………. . • Sustainability – self- sustaining • Technological obsolence • Correcting errors • User queries ……………………………………………………………………………. . … UK DATA ARCHIVE

Future resource – I-Ce. M ………………………………………………………………. . • Integrated Census Microdata (I-Ce. M) project will bring together more than 200 million individual records from censuses for Great Britain between 18511911 • Joint project between the History Dept at Essex and the UKDA – led by Professor Kevin Schürer & Dr Edward Higgs • Will create largest collection of its kind in world and potentially lead to the creation of a Victorian Panel Survey • Will combine computerised versions of censuses from that period to create a unique online historical resource full of vast amounts of information on every house, household and individual in the country for that period • A great UKDA & HDS resource of the future ……………………………………………………………………………. . … UK DATA ARCHIVE

QUESTIONS & FURTHER INFORMATION ………………………………………………………………. . histpop - http: //www. histpop. org/ CHCC - http: //hds. essex. ac. uk/history/data/chcc. asp HISTORY DATA SERVICE UK Data Archive University of Essex http: //hds. essex. ac. uk/history/ UK DATA ARCHIVE UNIVERSIY OF ESSEX WIVENHOE PARK COLCHESTER ESSEX CO 4 3 SQ ……. . ………………. …. . T +44 (0)1206 872001 E info@data-archive. ac. uk www. data-archive. ac. uk ……………………………………………………………………………. . … UK DATA ARCHIVE