Oliver Duke-Williams
@oliverdw.bsky.social
320 followers 390 following 110 posts
Professor of Population Information; UCL Dept of Information Studies Census Service Director @ UK Data Service MA/MSc Digital Humanities programme
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Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
abeba.bsky.social
Yesterday the Royal Society held a series of panels & keynotes in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Turing Test. The unanimous critical takes on AGI, big tech's power concentration & the call for urgent action left me w hope things might be turning

Watch here m.youtube.com/live/GmnBTCK...
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
hansilowang.bsky.social
THREAD: There are a lot of unanswered questions 12 hours after President Trump — who, according to the Constitution, has no final authority over the census — released a social media post calling for unprecedented changes to how the government produces data that forms the foundation of U.S. democracy
Trump wants a new U.S. census to exclude people here illegally. It'd be unprecedented
Trump is calling for a "new" census that excludes people in the U.S. without legal status. The 14th Amendment requires the "whole number of persons in each state" in a key set of census results.
www.npr.org
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
ukdataservice.bsky.social
Can you help with the redevelopment of the Health Survey for England and future collection of population health data?
The ONS has re-opened a questionnaire to gather feedback until 25 July: studies.ons.gov.uk/s/Future_HSE/ Find out more about discussions at our recent conference: lnkd.in/eua8-2Bt
oliverdw.bsky.social
The Government have now "commissioned the Office for National Statistics to conduct a mandatory, questionnaire-based, whole-population census of England and Wales in 2031"

Yay for fans of censuses!

A good time to repost my blog following the recommendation a few weeks ago
oliverdw.bsky.social
News about 'the next UK Census' - a blog by me on today's announcements by ONS, NRS and NISRA recommending a full #census in 2031

blog.ukdataservice.ac.uk/future-of-20...

@ukdataservice.bsky.social @celsiusnews.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk @bspsuk.bsky.social
Only Connect

A still from the BBC2 quiz show "Only Connect". Quiz host Victoria Coren Mitchell is shown with four clues, teams have to state the connection between the clues.

The clues are:
1) "Battle of Agincourt"
2) "Pocahontas dies"
3) "Peterloo Massacre"
4) "(e.g.) next UK Census"
oliverdw.bsky.social
Census data is also set apart from most other sources through being mandatory - as well as having to be fit for purpose for main gov/academic etc uses, there's a moral need to make it accessible for all potential users
oliverdw.bsky.social
Census data users are diverse and vary significantly in their needs; to realise that national asset, we need to provide a variety of routes to make the data usable
oliverdw.bsky.social
Pleased to have the opportunity to talk about user needs at the joint @bspsuk.bsky.social @ukdataservice.bsky.social @celsiusnews.bsky.social ONS meeting on the future of UK Demographic data

This slide from Jason Zawadski on the (recommended) 2031 Census as a vital national asset
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
ukdataservice.bsky.social
The Future of the UK Demographic System conference, organised between the British Society for Population Studies (BSPS), Office for National Statistics, the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information and User Support (CeLSIUS) and the UK Data Service, hosted at
@ucl.ac.uk, is currently underway.
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
georginasturge.bsky.social
How much will the ethnic profile of the UK change from migration and natural change over the next one hundred years? Will 'White British' become a minority?

I've tried to have a look at the data on this - and I didn't find what I thought I would.

georginasturge.substack.com/p/will-white...
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
ukdataservice.bsky.social
The @ukdataservice.bsky.social’s Labour Force and Annual Populations User Conference 2025 is now underway, with a packed room of intrigued attendees. The keynote speaker - @heejungchung.bsky.social has been providing fascinating insights into her global research on the impact of remote working.
oliverdw.bsky.social
Consultation doc mentions topics previously considered but not used (e.g. income), and topics used in England & Wales and/or NI, but not in Scotland

Finally - allows people to mention topics they think should be added to the census
oliverdw.bsky.social
Some admin sources are good, others more limited; some comes from surveys that are OK at national or regional scale, but sample not large enough for fine categories / small areas

BUT! Clear that admin data v much part of planning / implementation of census and important part of future pop data
oliverdw.bsky.social
The consultation doc is worth reading to understand the potential/limits of admin data - it lists current census topics and explains user need, and then summarises availability in non-census data
oliverdw.bsky.social
The Scottish Government have now launched a consultation on 2031 Census topics - this was mentioned in the announcement yesterday, but I think the link was missing from the initial version of the document (I don't know how quickly it was updated)

consult.gov.scot/national-rec...
Scotland's Census 2031 - Topics - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space
Find and participate in consultations run by The Scottish Government
consult.gov.scot
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
georginasturge.bsky.social
Well folks, looks like we are having another census 💃🏻

UK Stats Authority is officially endorsing it. Now ministers need to consider the recommendation and decide.

Admin data is still the way of the future - but we're not done with the census yet.

uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/publication/...
oliverdw.bsky.social
As trailed in the blog, we have a hybrid day meeting co-arranged by UK Data Service, BSPS, CeLSIUS and ONS, hosted at UCL where we will be discussing the future of the UK demographic system - and the role of a 2031 census in that system

Register:

ukdataservice.ac.uk/events/the-f...
The future of the UK demographic system — UK Data Service
A comprehensive resource funded by the ESRC to support researchers, teachers and policymakers who depend on high-quality social and economic data.
ukdataservice.ac.uk
oliverdw.bsky.social
News about 'the next UK Census' - a blog by me on today's announcements by ONS, NRS and NISRA recommending a full #census in 2031

blog.ukdataservice.ac.uk/future-of-20...

@ukdataservice.bsky.social @celsiusnews.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk @bspsuk.bsky.social
Only Connect

A still from the BBC2 quiz show "Only Connect". Quiz host Victoria Coren Mitchell is shown with four clues, teams have to state the connection between the clues.

The clues are:
1) "Battle of Agincourt"
2) "Pocahontas dies"
3) "Peterloo Massacre"
4) "(e.g.) next UK Census"
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
ukdsimpact.bsky.social
🚨New on the Data Impact blog🚨

The UK Statistics Agency (and their Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts) have made their recommendations to the @ukgovernment.bsky.social about the future of the 2031 #census

@oliverdw.bsky.social explores further

blog.ukdataservice.ac.uk/future-of-20...
Signposts against a dusky sky
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
ukdataservice.bsky.social
As we approach the end of the UK Data Service's UK Census User Conference 2025, which has been very successful, attendees have enjoyed hearing from inspirational speakers, who work for the Royal British Legion, talking about how they have used Census data to help improve the lives of veterans.
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
ukdataservice.bsky.social
During the final talks in our research paper sessions, we featured a number of fascinating speakers talking about their work using Census data, including Katrin Metsis, from the University of St Andrews, who spoke about her discoveries around gender inequality in general health among young people.
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
ukdataservice.bsky.social
Momoko Nishikido, from Queen's University Belfast, spoke today about Census findings around ethnicity. Daniel Jones, from the UK Home Office, also spoke about Refugee Integration Outcomes (RIO) insights. Plus, Andreas Mastrosavvas, from UCL, explained how they help users with ONS Longitudinal Study.
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
ukdataservice.bsky.social
On Day 2 of our UK Census User Conference 2025 we have started with two more parallel sessions. John Sanderson, the Deputy Director of the UK Data Service, has been chairing one of the sessions, which featured Alison Sizer, talking about 2021 Census linkages for researchers with a key ONS study.
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
ukdataservice.bsky.social
Our Census experts, Professor Oliver Duke-Williams, Finn Dymond-Green and Vassilis Routsis, have just been updating attendees about their recent work on Census data, highlighting the wide range of practical resources available from the UK Data Service to assist researchers. #census
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
ukdataservice.bsky.social
Mary Gregory, the Director of the Population Statistics Directorate from the Office for National Statistics, has been speaking about the organisation's approach to reporting on population and migration statistics from Census data, which is used by researchers to suggest Government policy changes.
Reposted by Oliver Duke-Williams
ukdataservice.bsky.social
Jen Hampton, the Head of Geospatial Analysis & Innovation at the Office for National Statistics, has been speaking about the organisation's work on Census geographies in the past, present and future, making it easier for researchers to conduct their work with the datasets.