Linking Armed Forces Leavers to 2011 Census

IntroductionThe aim of this project was to meet a user need for more data on those who have served, and now left, the UK armed forces (service leavers) to support commitments under the Armed Forces Covenant. We explored the feasibility of linking the Veteran Leavers Database (VLD) held by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to 2011 Census data held by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). Objectives and ApproachThe Census for England, Wales and Northern Ireland consisted of a total number of 56 million records. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) provided the Veteran Leavers Database (VLD) which contained two million records of individuals who have left the armed forces since 1971. Postcode information was not available for this linkage, therefore a bespoke set of matchkeys was created and clerical review was carried out to determine the best set of recommended matchkeys. The linkage was carried out within the secure linkage environment using pseudonymised data to protect the identities of individuals within these datasets. Results53% of all VLD records linked to a Census record on one of the recommended matchkeys. Further quality analysis was carried out on the linkage rates by different years of exit which showed that, after 1975, the rate of matched records improved the closer the VLD entry was to Census year. Conclusion / ImplicationsONS have concluded that whilst there is value in the administrative datasets on service leavers, it only partially meets the user need. A census question has been developed and tested on service leavers and it has been concluded that such a question will work. ONS therefore now intending to recommend inclusion of this topic in the 2021 Census.

Data for Children Proof of Concept

IntroductionThe Data for Children Proof of Concept Build was developed as a collaborative project between the Children’s Commissioner’s Office, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Administrative Data Research Partnership (ADRP) to address the challenge of identifying vulnerable children in England and Wales and related gaps in existing data available for research. Objectives and ApproachThis project tested the feasibility of linking longitudinal data on pupils from the All Education Dataset for England (AEDE) to 2011 Census data to identify other household members and enable more accurate measurement of the household structures that shape children’s experiences. A subset of 2.25 million individual pupils aged thirteen to eighteen from the AEDE for the 2010/11 academic year was used for the linkage because this year aligned to the Census date. Using pseudonymised data, a series of matchkeys containing different combinations of name, date of birth, gender and postcode, was used to link the AEDE to the Census using the standard ADR linkage method. ResultsFrom the subset of 2.25 million pupils identified in the 2010/11 data, just over two million (90%) linked to a Census record, two thirds of which matched on the strongest matchkey. Age distribution analysis showed there was consistency between the AEDE subset, the linked file and the AEDE records which did not link. Further analysis suggested that there was no issue with boarder status where records did not link. Conclusion / ImplicationsThis research showed that a high proportion of records matched between these datasets, and the majority of matches were made on strong matchkeys, giving confidence that those matches are correct, such that the feasibility of the linkage has been demonstrated. It was recommended that this research should continue.

A Census Record as a Source in Livy?

The speech of Spurius Ligustinus in Livy (42.34.2-15) presents a full account of the life and career of a Middle Republican centurion, sometimes dismissed as patriotic invention, but alternatively used as evidence for the social, economic and military history of the second century BCE. This article argues that the information for Ligustinus’s life and career was culled from archived census records, a theory that best explains the biographical details that would not turn up if Livy or his annalistic source simply wanted to generate a conventional rhetorical account of military accomplishment.

Historical Census Record Linkage

For the past 80 years, social scientists have been linking historical censuses across time to study economic and geographic mobility. In recent decades, the quantity of historical census record linkage has exploded, owing largely to the advent of new machine-readable data created by genealogical organizations. Investigators are examining economic and geographic mobility across multiple generations and also engaging many new topics. Several analysts are exploring the effects of early-life socioeconomic conditions, environmental exposures, or natural disasters on family, health, and economic outcomes in later life. Other studies exploit natural experiments to gauge the impact of policy interventions such as social welfare programs and educational reforms. The new data sources have led to a proliferation of record linkage methodologies, and some widespread approaches inadvertently introduce errors that can lead to false inferences. A new generation of large-scale shared data infrastructure now in preparation will ameliorate weaknesses of current linkage methods.

Distribution and Body Size Diverstiy of Emberizine Sparrows in Grand Teton National Park

Over the last decade or so, we have monitored breeding bird densities over the entire range of habitats within GTNP, from grasslands and sagebrush to scrub, woodland , and forest. Many field workers, including park scientists, have contributed to the monitoring efforts. In all, there are 30 established monitoring sites, and each has been visited on average in two out of three years since 1995. Some sites, however, have been censused yearly, and on some of these the census record extends back for several decades. The monitoring work provides a rather complete assessment of the park's breeding bird communities, i.e. species over habitats among years, and to date some 160 species have been recorded in the monitoring effort, all but a handful of which are breeding birds. This report addresses specifically one prominent group of breeding birds, the emberizine sparrows and buntings.