Demographics dataset#
Last modified: 21 Oct 2026
1. Summary#
The Demographics dataset is derived from the Personal Demographics Service (PDS) database, which is the national database of all NHS patients in England, Wales and the Isle of Man in or after 2004. People born in these areas are registered and issued an NHS number at birth; people moving into these areas are registered when they first interact with an NHS care setting. Data collected include NHS numbers and date of birth, name, sex and address. A sub-set of this dataset (DEMOGRAPHICS_SUB) containing Study ID, data of birth and sex is provisioned with all NHS England data requests.
| Dataset Descriptor | Dataset-specific Information |
|---|---|
| Name of Dataset in TRE | NHSE_DEMOGRAPHICS |
| Citation (APA) | Data Services, NHS England (NHSE). (2024). NHS England: Demographics Dataset - Dated 23 May 2024. UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC). https://doi.org/10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00396-02 |
| Download Citation | Citeproc JSON BibTeX RIS |
| Series | NHS England |
| Owner | NHS England |
| Copyright | Copyright © (2026), NHS England. Data re-used with the permission of NHS England. All rights reserved. |
| Temporal Coverage in the TRE | 06/2004 - ongoing |
| Geographical Coverage | England, Wales |
| Participant Count | 298053 |
| Number of Variables | 15 |
| Number of Observations | 317494 |
| Key Link | None |
| Keywords | Demographics |
| Latest Extract Date | 2024-04-26 |
| Specific Restrictions to Data Use | None |
| Build a Data Request | https://explore.ukllc.ac.uk/ |
2. Metrics#
| Cohort | Participant Count |
|---|---|
| AIRWAVE | 44569 |
| ALSPAC | 6052 |
| BCS70 | 7456 |
| BIB | 15163 |
| ELSA | 7340 |
| EPICN | 15178 |
| EXCEED | 10181 |
| GLAD | 71970 |
| MCS | 22496 |
| NCDS58 | 7900 |
| NEXTSTEP | 5851 |
| NIHRBIO_COPING | 16844 |
| NSHD46 | 4257 |
| TEDS | 8944 |
| TRACKC19 | 14499 |
| TWINSUK | 14037 |
| UKHLS | 6818 |
| UKREACH | 18498 |
3. Version History#
4. Documentation#
We are currently building a documentation storage system which will host useful documents related to datasets and data owners. We will surface these documents on Guidebook.
5. Useful Syntax#
Below we will include syntax that may be helpful to other researchers in the UK LLC TRE. For longer scripts, we will include a snippet of the code plus a link to the UK LLC GitHub repository where you can find the full scripts.