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.
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.
About the data
Currently migration and commuting data from the 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011 Censuses are available through WICID. 2021 Census data are only available as bulk downloads.
Additional non-census datasets are also available from the system.
- Detailed information about our data sets
- Tutorial information is available describing how to use the interface