You asked
Does the ONS represent national (United Kingdom) statistics: England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Or something else?
We said
The Office for National Statistics produces a wide range of economic and social statistics that include:
- the UK's National Accounts (such as gross domestic product (GDP), national income and expenditure)
- the UK Balance of Payments
- population, demography and migration statistics
- government output and activity
- business output and activity
- prices statistics (such as consumer prices and producer prices)
- the labour market (such as employment, unemployment and earnings)
- vital events statistics (such as births, marriages and deaths)
- social statistics (for example, about neighbourhoods and families)
- economic, societal and personal well-being
The Office for National Statistics also designs and run the census in England and Wales every 10 years, working with the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland and Scotland to carry out the census of population.
The principles underpinning the relations between UK Government and devolved administrations in respect of the production of official statistics are set out in a Concordat on Statistics. The devolved administrations and UK government departments are all part of the UK statistical system, which works together to meet the needs of multiple users including international organisations and the UK, devolved and local governments.
Where devolution in the United Kingdom has seen some areas of responsibility devolved, measurement and evaluation of policies is normally also devolved to the relevant administration. This means that whether statistics are produced at the devolved or UK level varies by topic, and in some cases by nation. In practice, this means that most of the economic statistics are produced by ONS on a UK basis, whereas statistics on health, education and other topics where policy is devolved are produced by statisticians in the relevant administration.