ONS working paper series

The ONS Working Paper Series is designed to provide a home for ONS staff to disseminate the wide range of methodological research work.

ONS working paper series number 37 - Geospatial methods for Small Area Population Estimates: proof of concept

Published 30 July 2024
Exploring different geospatial approaches for producing household population estimates for lower layer super output areas in England and Wales.

ONS working paper series number 36 - Impact of hot days on productivity in Great Britain methodology

Published 15 May 2024
Models estimates of output lost in gross value added (GVA) from the impact of hot days (28 degrees Celsius and over) on labour productivity in Great Britain. These are official statistics in development.

ONS working paper series no 35 - Quantifying uncertainty in headline international migration estimates

Published 9 January 2024
Research update on quantifying uncertainty in international migration estimates, and using expert judgement to quantify uncertainty in administrative estimates.

ONS working paper series no 34 - Quality indicators for representativeness in administrative data: R-indicators and distance metrics

Published 8 December 2023
In this working paper, we are testing how R-indicators and distance metrics can be applied to measure the representativeness of an administrative dataset.

ONS working paper series no 33 - Small Area Population Estimates in the transformed population estimation system: methods development

Published 7 December 2023
A working paper that explores different methodological options for Small Area Population Estimates in the transformed population estimation system

ONS working paper series no 32 - Measuring uncertainty in international migration estimates

Published 1 June 2023
Outline of how we can use a simulation-based approach to quantify uncertainty in administrative-based migration estimates for some sources of uncertainty in the statistical system.

ONS working paper series no 31 - Estimating population by time of day

Published 30 May 2023
A case study into producing daytime population statistics for 14 Local Authorities using an experimental method.

ONS working paper series no 30 - Cataloguing errors in administrative and alternative data sources – what, when and how

Published 21 April 2023
Theoretical overview providing error classifications and outlining possible ways to deal with errors when using administrative data for statistical purposes.

ONS working paper series no 29 – Exploring the quality of administrative data using qualitative methods

Published 4 April 2023
Research conducted in the Methodological Research Hub in the Methodology and Quality Directorate, exploring the quality of administrative data using qualitative methods.

ONS working paper series no 28 - Exploring the use of multiple imputation latent class modelling (MILC) for administrative data

Published 27 January 2023
This methodology outlines a proof-of-concept research project exploring how we might begin to apply MILC to administrative data for our statistical purposes at the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

ONS working paper series no 27 - Using structural equation modelling to determine measurement error in different administrative data sources

Published 26 October 2022
Structural equation modelling (SEM) combines several indicators of the same measure into a latent variable that is assumed to be the “true measure”. This methodology explores how SEM can quantify the measurement error in administrative data sources, in this case floor area measured by Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data.

ONS working paper series no 26 - Conjoint analysis for valuing official statistics, UK: 2022

Published 7 September 2022
This report explores the potential of developing conjoint analysis as a method to elicit willingness to pay estimates for valuing official statistics.

ONS working paper series no 25 - Improving disability data to understand the effects of coronavirus (COVID-19) on people with different impairment types

Published 7 June 2022
Exploring the use of predictive modelling and administrative data to provide more detail on the effects of coronavirus (COVID-19) on disabled people by impairment type.

ONS working paper series no 24 – Valuing official statistics with conjoint analysis: April 2021

Published 21 April 2021
This paper summarises an Office for National Statistics pilot study to test the potential of using a conjoint approach to valuing official earnings data which are published freely as a public good.

ONS working paper series no 23 – Using statistical modelling to estimate UK international migration

Published 16 April 2021
Estimating how levels of international migration have been affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by making innovative use of available data sources and methods.

ONS working paper series no 22 – Developing standard tools for data linkage: February 2021

Published 3 February 2021
Discussing the seven functions that were created to automate part of the data linkage pipeline to improve efficiency and quality.

ONS working paper series no 21 – Imputing an admin-based income variable linked to 2011 England and Wales Census data

Published 11 January 2021
Results from a proof of concept study into imputing an income variable from administrative data linked to 2011 Census data.

ONS working paper series no 20 – Feasibility of using donor-based imputation for census outputs on number of rooms using Valuation Office Agency data

Published 31 July 2020
Demonstration of using a donor-based imputation method (CANCEIS) to address missing values when replacing the number of rooms question on Census 2021.

ONS working paper series no 19 – An error framework for longitudinal administrative sources; its use for understanding the statistical properties of data for international migration

Published 14 February 2020
A framework that asseses error in longitudinal administrative data sources, how it has been applied to data for international migration, and plans to optimise and apply the framework moving forward.

ONS working paper series no 18 – Exploration of the Global Database of Events, Language and Tone (GDELT)– with specific application to disaster reporting

Published 9 January 2020
Assessing the quality of unofficial data sources in the context of disaster reporting.

ONS working paper series no 17 – Using data science for the address matching service

Published 18 January 2019
The methodology of address matching process used in a highly accurate, reliable and scalable service providing geographical references.

ONS methodology working paper series number 16 – Synthetic data pilot

Published 15 January 2019
A pilot study investigating the demands and requirements for synthetic datasets, and exploring possible tools to produce synthetic data for specific user requirements.

ONS working paper series number 15 – Feasibility study: Caravan parks recognition in aerial imagery

Published 11 May 2018
An ONS Big Data Team pilot study exploring the potential of using satellite and aerial imagery in the production of official statistics and the feasibility of using these data to enhance intelligence on addresses currently available to ONS.

ONS working paper series number 14 – Unsupervised document clustering with cluster topic identification

Published 19 April 2018
A method for classifying businesses according to their economic activity using text data.

ONS methodology working paper series number 13 – comparing the density of mobile phone cell towers with population estimates

Published 11 October 2017
The relationship between official estimates of UK residential and workday population density and the density of mobile phone cell towers is investigated using freely available and open-sourced data on cell tower locations from OpenCellID.

ONS methodology working paper series number 12 – a comparison of index number methodology used on UK web scraped price data

Published 18 August 2017
An assessment of methods used to construct price indices using web scraped data. The assessment uses the criteria of the axiomatic, economic and statistical approaches to index number theory.

ONS methodology working paper series no. 11 – Identifying caravan homes in Zoopla data: June 2017

Published 9 June 2017

ONS methodology working paper series no. 10 – Methodology for measuring uncertainty in ONS local authority mid-year population estimates: 2012 to 2015

Published 30 November 2017