• The Teaching File contains 1% of the person records from the 2011 Census in England & Wales, and was created for training students.

  • The Virtual Microdata Laboratory (VML) is a facility in ONS enabling access to restricted microdata from ONS surveys and other confidential datasets.

  • An individual census microdata sample for researchers.

Microdata are small samples of data for whole households and individuals, which include some associated census characteristics but no information that could identify a household or individual.

Microdata products enable researchers to look at combinations of characteristics that are not generally available from the standard census tables, and to perform different types of analyses not possible from standard tabulations.

ONS is committed to our assurance that individual identities linked with their information will be kept confidential. ONS has a successful track record of protecting personal census information for over 200 years.

No identifiable individual level census data will be released.

The Office for National Statistics is committed to making data available as widely as possible and is responsible for maximising benefits from the 2011 Census. As part of this we are releasing several different microdata products, including the Microdata Teaching File, Secure Microdata and Safeguarded Microdata. These products strike a balance between detail and security, allowing a flexible tool set for casual users as well as professional researchers.

Users are reminded that from time to time issues are identified with Census data after publication. Corrections and guidance are provided. Information on these are available on the issues and corrections page. ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.