This page tries to point in the right direction for obtaining data that can be built into GIS mapping applications. The first section concentrates on general sources of data whereas the quick links below this highlight specific data sources that can be freely obtained:
Boundaries
School Data
Environmental Data
Transport
Social data
Health datasets
Crime data
General data sources:
Office for National Statistics (ONS)
ONS is responsible for collecting and publishing statistics related to the economy, population and society at national, regional and local levels. It also conducts the census in England and Wales every ten years. A comprehensive list of individual datasets and reference tables can be found here:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/datasets-and-tables/index.html
and a geography portal for geographical reference data (e.g. LSOA’s E+W, administration boundaries) can be found here
https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/geoportal/
NOMIS
Nomis is a service provided by the Office for National Statistics, ONS, to give you free access to the most detailed and up-to-date UK labour market statistics from official sources. Select ‘query data’ from the link below:
London Data Store
For social and demographic data within London, this is the first port of call.
http://data.london.gov.uk/dataset
Government data
The Government is releasing public data to help people understand how government works and how policies are made. Some of this data is already available, but data.gov.uk brings it together in one searchable website.
http://data.gov.uk/data/search
Specific data sources:
Boundaries
Bounding boxes for each country
GeoJSON country boundaries
https://github.com/datasets/geo-countries
School data
School performance data
Department of education provide detailed data on school performance at KS2, KS4, KS5 level for the whole country. A text file containing field descriptions is also available. Download data in xls format and geocode the postcodes to put into GIS. The following fields provide the most useful general information: Average point score, Average level per pupil, % pupils achieving level 4 or above in reading and maths and writing, —“”—level4b, —“”—level5.
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/download_data.html
School list
From the link above, download the spine package and geocode the results.
Libraries
Data can be downloaded from the link below and requires geocoding.
http://data.gov.uk/dataset/uk-public-library-contacts-14032012
Environmental Data
Environment Agency geostore
A large collection of environmental datasets spanning a variety of applications, which I believe has superseded the MAGIC database.
http://www.geostore.com/environment-agency/WebStore?xml=environment-agency/xml/ogcDataDownload.xml
UK river network
Ordnance survey has recently provided a shapefile detailing all the rivers in the UK. This can be found here
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/os-open-rivers.html
Forest inventory
A complete breakdown of forest in GB by woodland type (registration is required)
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-8g5bx3
Open spaces London
An earlier blog post details how to use Open Street Map to generate this GIS layer. Alternatively, drop me a message and I will be happy to pass this dataset onto you.
Land cover map
CORINE land cover map provides land cover type by vector and raster for 2007 and is available to download from the CORINE UK website.
http://www.ceh.ac.uk/sci_programmes/biogeochem/corinelandcovermap.html
Public rights of way
Shapefiles for certain counties can be downloaded from here:
Transport
NAPTAN: National public transport access nodes
CSV files contains Eastings and Northings for each public transport stops (bus, train, ferry etc) throughout the UK.
http://data.gov.uk/dataset/naptan
Great Britain Railways and Stations
This shapefile shows the position of all railway lines and stations but does not contain any attribute data regarding train companies and routes. This shapefile must be projected into BNG.
http://www.sharegeo.ac.uk/handle/10672/83
British rail network
This dataset contains route information for each rail company operating in GB and is based on information from the association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC). Unfortunately it only comes as a text file but it at least provides a nice overview of the companies and routes they offer.
http://www.gtfs-data-exchange.com/agency/virgin-trains/
UK road network
Ordnance survey provide the whole road network throughout the UK.
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/os-open-roads.html
London underground routes and stations
Data can be found from the following website (download as kml for Arcmap).
http://www.doogal.co.uk/london_stations.php
Social data
Job seekers (youth unemployment)
Data describing the number of people claiming job seekers allowance (currently upto August 2014). Data available on various timescales and provided in CSV format. Select Job seekers for small areas if you want the data at LSOA level. Other benefits data is accessible and all our found under DWP Benefits.
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/select/getdatasetbytheme.asp?opt=3&theme=&subgrp=
Fuel poverty
Detailed statistical tables by several different Census regions in excel – needs to be spatially linked to shapefiles.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fuel-poverty-detailed-tables-2012
Income estimates
Follow the link and then click on data to download income estimates by MSOA 2007/2008.
http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/incomeestimates.html
Health Datasets
Doctor’s surgeries
Data can be exported when a postcode is entered in the search bar. This csv file needs to be geocoded before entering into GIS.
http://www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/GP/LocationSearch/4
General health data stores
Look into the public health observatory for england and this tool for a wide variety of health datasets such as obesity, diabetes rates, childhood obesity etc.
Crime data
The Police Force provides monthly data by LSOA and by crime type for the whole of the country. Data comes in csv format and can be analysed in Excel before being linked to LSOA spatial layers.
geospatial wandering 