Economic and Social Data Service

Quick Guide

What is the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS)?

The ESDS is a library of social and economic research, delivered through 4 specialist services:

ESDS Government – for access to large-scale government surveys, including Labour Force Survey and General Household Survey

ESDS International – for access to statistics from such sources as the IMF and World Bank, and survey data such as Eurobarometers

ESDS Longitudinal – for access to longitudinal surveys (which follow subjects over a long period of time), including the British Household Panel Survey and the National Child Development Study

ESDS Qualidata – for access to social science qualitative data and research as collected by the service, includes interviews, focus groups and observations

The ESDS can also advise researchers on data collection and management techniques as well as running events for researchers on the ESDS service, and meetings for those using and contributing to major surveys, such as the General Household Survey.

ESDS comprises of more than 5,000 computer-readable datasets from a variety of sources including universities, government organisations, independent research institutions and market research organisations.

How to access ESDS

  • Access to this database is via ATHENS only, both on and off campus. If you do not have an ATHENS account, please contact the Library:
  • If you have your ATHENS logins, select Economic and Social Data Service link
  • Select UEL from the drop down list
  • Enter your ATHENS logins
  • If it is your first time using this database, you will have to fill out a short registration form and await a confirmation email to the address you specified on the form
  • Click on the link in the email to begin using the service

Searching ESDS

  • From the homepage, select which service you which to search
  • Click on search or make further selections depending on which service you have chosen
  • ESDS Government – will search only the large-scale government surveys, e.g. Labour Force Survey
  • ESDS International – will search only multi-nation aggregate databanks, e.g. World Bank data
  • ESDS Longitudinal – will search only major UK surveys which followed individuals for a period of time, e.g. British Household Panel Survey
  • ESDS Qualidata – will search only qualitative data
  • With each Search option, you can limit your search terms to various fields including year and service
  • NOTE: Each service has a different home page and search functions so it is best to read the Help/FAQ page before starting your search for the first time
  • When you have chosen a dataset, you can read the documentation online as a PDF

Downloading and ordering data from ESDS

  • In order to download research data from ESDS you must first register a new reason for data so that the owners know how their data is to be used
  • To do this you must go to your details page and fill in the brief form
  • There is no charge for downloading data as long as the purpose is non commercial
  • For further information about downloading from the various libraries, please see the Resources section and click on the ESDS Guides link

ESDS Nesstar catalogue

  • Using the Nesstar catalogue, users are able to browse, view and analyse a variety of survey data all through a web browser without specialist software
  • These large-scale datasets include the Labour Force Survey and British Social Attitudes Survey
  • For more information on searching and using Nesstar, please go to the Support taband click on the ESDS Guides link

More information

  • From the homepage, click on New Users for information on getting started
  • Each ESDS service has their own mailing list to join for further interaction with researchers and news about upcoming events and seminars
  • ESDS International has a Twitter feed and a YouTube channel for further information
  • Click on My Account for links to the most popular datasets via Major Studies

Last updated July 2012