Consultation on the future of population and migration statistics in England and Wales

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) ran a consultation from 29 June 2023 to 26 October 2023 on the Future of Population and Migration Statistics in England and Wales. It was designed to provide us with information on how people currently use our population and migration statistics. It also captured user feedback on our proposals for future development of these statistics. For further details, please see our consultation document.

This consultation update details the number of consultation responses by sector and outlines how we engaged with users of population and migration statistics both before and during the consultation. It also explains how we will carry out our analysis of the responses. 

ONS is responsible for producing population statistics for England and Wales. The consultation covers only population and migration statistics produced for England and Wales, and the Welsh Government have been closely involved throughout. We are continuing to work closely with our partners in National Records Scotland and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

We received a total of 706 responses at the close of the consultation. The table below shows how respondents represented themselves based on the categories provided in the consultation questionnaire.

*Other includes responses from sectors such as Think Tanks, Journalism or Media; which have been combined to avoid disclosure.

Note - Responses with more than one named author have been included, in this table, as a single response

Users were asked why population statistics are important to them. Broadly, the main reasons included:

• Informing national and local public policy to provide the best strategy and intelligence
• Monitoring trends and changes in communities and populations
• Informing funding and allocation decisions around service provision, to meet the needs of the local communities and societal groups  
• Academic research and detailed analysis in the respective fields of study
• Respondents personal interest in being kept up to date on the analysis of data for issues important to them or their organisation
• A number of responses were from users of population data via Census records for family and social history purposes

Prior to the consultation being launched we undertook targeted engagement to maximise awareness and accessibility of our proposals. This included a series of roundtables across a number of sectors, where we sought feedback on our consultation approach and promoted the importance of engaging with the proposal across these sectors. These roundtables covered a broad range of users, but we were cognizant that these conversations alone may not be representative of the total user base. 

During the formal consultation period, we delivered a sizeable engagement programme to reach as many users as possible. We focused on providing resources to make sure users had access to information to make an informed response to the consultation questionnaire. This was delivered through emails, newsletters, social media, conferences, webinars, meetings and other events. The consultation provided users with a questionnaire to share their feedback on the proposals and how it would meet their needs.

Responses to the consultation will inform a recommendation from the UK Statistics Authority, on the advice of the National Statistician. This recommendation will outline how ONS should produce statistics about the population and migration in the future, based on user need for population and migration statistics. We will publish the outcomes of our analysis in 2024, alongside the recommendation.

The consultation has provided ONS with an opportunity to engage with a wide range of users, representing the diverse population and communities, which we serve as producers of official statistics for England and Wales. However, the conversation and engagement with users does not stop here: user need will continue to be at the heart of what we do moving forward. As we approach the formal recommendation and develop our future research plan, we will continue to build on the engagement we sought throughout the consultation and build in opportunities for further feedback from users.   

We would like to thank all respondents for their valuable feedback, which will continue to guide our work in this area. 

If you would like to get in touch about our future research plan, please email FPMSenquiries@ons.gov.uk