Census Support: Flow Data

Flow Data is part of UK Data Service Census Support, providing data and user support for anyone interested in using flow data from the Census.

Census flow data (also referred to as interaction data) relate to the movement of people between places. These can be regular short distance moves such as the daily commute to work, or less frequent - and sometimes longer distance - moves such as migration to a new home or an extended stay in a second address.

Flow data differ from other Census data in that they link two locations - an origin and a destination. With two geographies, flow datasets can be much larger than other Census data products.

Getting the data

There are three principal ways of getting to the data. In order to use most of the data sets, it is necessary to be registered.

	WICID - the flexible query builder
	WICID Downloads - flow data tables ready to be downloaded (includes data from the 2021 Census)
	WICID Flow Summaries - a quick summary of the most significant flows associated with a chosen area

New data for un-registered users

• Un-registered users and interested registered users can now access a time series of UK inter-district migration estimates, which have been produced by CIDER. These data are available directly from the Office for National Statistics - for more information about the dataset and how to gain access, click here.

Census Support Flow Data (formerly The Centre for Interaction Data Estimation and Research), now based at UCL forms part of the UK Data Service Census Support Service, and provides access to Census Interaction Data through services running at the University of Essex