The UK Data Service is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to meet the data needs of researchers, students and teachers from all sectors, including academia, central and local government, charities and foundations, independent research centres, think tanks, and business consultants and the commercial sector.

The UK Data Service collection includes major UK government-sponsored surveys, cross-national surveys, longitudinal studies, UK census data, international aggregate, business data, and qualitative data.

We provide:

- Access to high-quality local, regional, national and international social and economic data
- Support for policy-relevant research in the higher education, public and commercial sectors
- Guidance and training for the development of skills in data use
- The development of best practice data preservation and sharing standards
- The sharing of expertise with international data providers to remove barriers to accessing data