ONS subnational data – advice for those analysing the impact of COVID-19

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces data and statistics to support decision-makers in the UK and our trusted, impartial information is more important now than ever.

The coronavirus illness (COVID-19) is a significant challenge for the UK and we are working to ensure that the UK has the vital information needed to respond to the impact of the pandemic.

A dashboard showing reported cases of coronavirus in the UK, including new cases, cases by upper tier local authority in England (covering counties and unitary authorities) and number of deaths is available from Public Health England.

The Local Government Association provides reports on COVID-19 cases broken down for individual English authorities : LG Inform. Their COVID-19 Cases Tracker provides an overview for England. These pages are updated every night using the public PHE data.

Geographic datasets to support national and local analysis can be downloaded free from the ONS Open Geography Portal in a variety of formats:

Important datasets include:

• Boundaries for Counties and Unitary Authorities (December 2019)
• Boundaries for Health Areas – Clinical Commissioning Groups in England (April 2019)
• The National Statistics Postcode Directory – which provides a look-up between postcodes and a wide range of geographic areas (February 2020)

A huge range of other boundary sets and further data is available at the ONS Open Geography Portal.

If you wish to carry out analysis on your own data, the following regional and sub-regional ONS datasets may be of value to provide denominators or context to your analysis:

• Mid-Year Population estimates, including by age group
• Regional and local labour market data
• Gross domestic product for regions and subregions
• Deaths registered in England and Wales.

The population and labour market data can also be accessed via the Nomis website alongside a range of other ONS datasets.

For a fuller overview of ONS subnational data and analysis, please refer to the Centre for Subnational Analysis.

ONS pulls together statistics for the UK on many topics but responsibility and coverage can vary. For data relating to Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland visit the following sites:

• Welsh Government statistics and research and Stats Wales catalogue of official data
• Statistics.gov.scot, Spatialdata.gov.scot and National Records of Scotland statistics and data
• Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and NISRA Geography