You asked
I have been trying to find out what proportion of the general population has a degree at PhD or equivalent doctorate level.
From what I see, you only collect information about ‘degree-level or above’ qualifications, as a single category.
Can you confirm if there is any data available on the number of PhD or equivalent holders, and if so, where I might find it – as recent as possible, UK-wide or in separate nations does not matter.
We said
The information you have requested can be obtained from the customer services team of ONS Social Survey division. Special extracts and tabulations of Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS) data are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate).
As this information is already available to you via this route ONS considers that S21(1) applies to this request and the information does not have to be supplied under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. S21(1) is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest test needs to be applied.
UK Data Service
If you are able to do your own cross-tabulations you could purchase an anonymised Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS) datasets from the UK Data Service.
Details on costs and how to download the data can be found on their website:
Advice for commercial users - http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/registration.aspx#/tab-commercial-users
Charges - http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/charges.aspx
Bespoke Commissioned Tables Service:-
If you would like to enquire about our service then please contact socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk Information regarding our service can be found here - http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/business-transparency/freedom-of-information/what-can-i-request/index.html
Information about our charges can be found here - http://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/aboutus/whatwedo/statistics/publicationscheme/socialsurveychargerates.pdf
Please see page 239 of the LFS Userguide to view what information is captured regarding education at degree level - https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/labourforcesurveyuserguidance/vol32016jm.pdf