Introduction#

UK LLC population datasets cover the characteristics of the local citizens where a participant lives.

Spatial data of local populations is useful when studying the impact of human activities on resource utilisation and the ecological environment. For example, population density could be used in research to quantify the intensity of human activities, depict the spatial patterns of eco-environmental quality, simulate the spatial distribution of pollutant emissions, or evaluate ecological problems caused by urbanisation (Chen et al., 2020). UK LLC currently provides an indicator of population density at Lower Super Output Area (or equivalent) in the Index of Multiple Deprivation dataset, which is automatically provisioned with every project. The dataset also contains a UK-wide harmonised indicator of deprivation and an urban-rural indicator.

Socioeconomic factors, such as deprivation at an individual and area level have been found to act together to influence health. Stafford and Marmot (2003) describe how these interactions can be separated into two models: a ‘collective resources model’, where people in non-deprived areas have better health than people in deprived areas because there are more collective resources (including material and social resources, such as services, job opportunities, and social supports). In contrast, the ‘local social inequality model’ suggests that the disparity between an individual’s own socioeconomic position and the socioeconomic position of those living in the nearby area affects health. A poorer individual living in a more affluent area may have worse health than a poorer individual living in a deprived area. Therefore, being comparatively less well-off than other individuals in the area may be a barrier to taking a fully active part in society (Sen, 1999*).

By providing linked datasets on the socioeconomic characteristics of the nearby population, researchers can investigate questions surrounding the interaction between area-level deprivation and economic inactivity at the individual level, and how these factors influence health.

The current UK LLC population datasets include:

• Townsend Deprivation Index

• Index of Multiple Deprivation dataset.

Please click on each dataset for more information.

* Sen A. Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 73–74.