Census 2001: Controlled Access Microdata Sample Test File (CAMS) / Census Microdata
The UK censuses took place on 29th April 2001. They were run by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA), General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for both England and Wales. The UK comprises the countries of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.Statistics from the UK censuses help paint a picture of the nation and how we live. They provide a detailed snapshot of the population and its characteristics, and underpin funding allocation to provide public services. The Controlled Access Microdata Sample Test File (CAMS) test file is a sub-sample of 298,912 cases from the Individual CAMS from the 2001 Census. Variables have been perturbed to ensure that no sample members can be identified. Perturbation has retained the correct distribution of each variable but the relationships between variables will not give expected results. The test file can therefore be used to develop and test statistical software syntax for analyses before going to use the CAMS at the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It cannot be used to test exploratory analyses with any reliability, nor will it provide the ability to test statistical procedures which are dependent on distributions. It is not suitable for research purposes and has been provided only as a dummy dataset for preparing syntax in advance of using the CAMS file. The protection comes from perturbing multiple variables per person with a high probability of change and by providing no indication of whether a variable value has been perturbed. The CAMS test file only covers individuals in private households in England and Wales, and excludes students living away from their parental home and households of six people or more. These limitations do not apply to the full CAMS files. Other differences may apply in terms of variable availability. Further information about the Test CAMS may be found on the Cathie Marsh Centre for Survey Research Samples of Anonymised Records website. Users should consult the codebook for the full CAMS file prior to applying to use the data or preparing syntax. The application procedure for the full CAMS data is available on the ONS Census 2001 Individual CAMS and the Census 2001 Household CAMS webpages. The CAMS test file dataset includes information on household composition, housing conditions, Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), socio-economic status, social class, gender, family generations, ethnicity, health, employment status, geography, education and migration.
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Geographic Coverage:
GB, IE
Resource Type:
dataset
Study Design:
census
Available in Data Catalogs:
UK Data Service