Census 2022

One of only 20 to be funded under the ESRC’s first ‘Transformative Social Science’ programme, this project explored the feasibility of estimating small area (neighbourhood) census-like statistics from transactional ā€˜big data’ including large scale fine grained temporal energy monitoring data held by the Faculty. It involved extensive collaboration with data owners/providers, Census researchers in the Department of Geography and the Office for National Statisticsā€™ Beyond 2011 Census Futures team.


8th July, 2016

A further paper from the ESRC funded Census2022 project has just been published in theĀ Computers, Environment and Urban SystemsĀ journal. Entitled “Electricity consumption and household characteristics: Implications for census-taking in a smart metered future”, the paper briefly reviews the nature of current and future census taking in the UK before outlining the household characteristics that are […]


9th March, 2016

SERG’s Dr Ben Anderson recently gave a summary of the ESRC funded Census2022 project results as part of a Market Research Society symposium on “Can Big Data replace the Census?Ā What does Big Data give us now?“. Speaking alongside representatives from CACI, Telefonica and the Office for National Statistics, Ben outlined the potential value of electricity […]


15th September, 2015

SERG’s Dr Ben Anderson gave two papers at the recent Royal Statistical Society International Conference 2015 held at the Univesity of Exeter: “What can DECCā€™s NEED data tell us about levels and change in domestic electricity consumption?” gave an overview of some recent analysis of DECC’s domestic energy consumption dataset drawing implications for the need […]


20th July, 2015

Newing, Andy, Anderson, Ben, Bahaj, A.S. and James, P.A.B. (2015) The role of digital trace data in supporting the collection of population statistics ā€“ the case for smart metered electricity consumption data. Population Space and Place, 1-13. (doi:10.1002/psp.1972). Debates over the future of the UK’s traditional decadal census have led to the exploration of supplementary […]


29th September, 2014

The Census2022Ā  project recently gave a series of presentations of preliminary results at the following conferences and events: British Society for Population Studies Annual Conference: University of Winchester, 8-10 September 2014, (slides) Behave 2014 ā€˜Paradigm Shift: From Energy Efficiency to Energy Reduction through Social Changeā€™, the third European conference on behaviour and energy efficiency, SaĆÆd […]


23rd January, 2014

The following session has been accepted for the RGS Annual Conference 2014 Session Title: The role of commercial data in #Census2022 Organisers: Dr Ben Anderson and Dr Andy Newing, Sustainable Energy Research Group, University of Southampton Session Chair: Keith Dugmore, Demographic Decisions Ltd. and Demographics User Group Session Sponsor: ESRC #Census2022 Transformative Research Project Abstract: […]


25th November, 2013

The new ESRC funded Census 2022 project has attracted attention from the Market Research Society’s Census and Geodemographic Group (CGG). Andy Newing gave an overview of the project’s aims and objectives as well as some preliminary data analysis at a meeting hosted by GFK NOP, 19th November 2013 at Ludgate House, London. Several members of […]


Census 2022: Transforming Small Area Socio-Economic Indicators through ‘Big Data’ is a project funded by theĀ ESRC Transformative Research 2012/2013. Investigators: Dr Ben Anderson, Dr Patrick James & Prof. ‘Bakr Bahaj Contact: b.anderson@southampton.ac.uk The possible demise of the decennial UK Census presents social, policy and commercial researchers with both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge […]