Understanding the views of residents is essential for effective governance. Resident surveys are an important way of gathering this feedback. However, prior to this project, all resident surveys run in Wales were unique. This made it difficult to compare results from one council to another. We identified an opportunity to improve the consistency and comparability of these surveys by taking a ‘Once for Wales’ approach.

In collaboration with the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) and local councils we developed a consistent, modular, bi-lingual resident survey that would be offered to all local councils in Wales. The specific aims of the project were to:

• Reduce development and running costs through standardisation and centralisation;
• Enhance data quality and comparability through standardisation;
• Deliver useable insight via a results dashboard; and
• Prompt improvement conversations through comparison and benchmarking.

We launched the National Resident Survey in July 2024, just six months after the first discussions. In this time, we developed the national survey, signed off data protection and sharing approaches, and created a dissemination dashboard.

Read more to find out about the successes, the challenges, and what is coming next.

Here you’ll find all of our InfoBase news including updates on the system and its content.

Businesses by size (2024)

The data for 2024 for businesses by size is now available following a release by the Office for National Statistics.

Businesses by industry (2024)

The data for 2024 for businesses by industry is now available following a release by the Office for National Statistics.

Average house prices (July 2024)

The data for July 2024 for average house prices is now available following a release by the Land Registry.

Children receiving care and support (2023)

The following data is now available following a release by the Welsh Government:

• Children receiving care and support


• Children receiving care and support, by age


• Children receiving care and support, by ethnicity


• Children receiving care and support, by category of need


• Health of children receiving care and support


• Parental factors of children receiving care and support


• Children looked after, by category of need (Children Receiving Care and Support Census)


• Parental factors of children looked after (Children Receiving Care and Support Census)


• Children on the Child Protection Register (CPR), by category on need


• Parental factors of children on the Child Protection Register (CPR)


• Other children receiving care and support, by category of need


• Parental factors of other children receiving care and support

Job Seeker’s Allowance claimant count (August 2024)

The latest (August 2024) Job Seeker’s Allowance claimant count is now available following a release by the Office for National Statistics.

Exports data (latest quarter, 2024)

Exports data for April 2024 - June 2024 is now available following a release by HM Revenues & Customs (HMRC).

Claimant counts (August 2024)

The data for August 2024 for number of working age people who are claiming Job Seeker's Allowance or Universal Credit is now available following a release by the Welsh Government.

Mental health data updates (latest quarter, 2024)

Mental health data for April – June 2024 is now available following a release by the Welsh Government.

The next update will be available in November 2024.

Geography tables (August 2024)

We’ve published the latest geography lookup table (August 2024) to help you understand which local authority, ward or local health board a postcode is in.

The table contains the names and identification codes of Welsh statistical geographies, from postcode through to local health board, and how they relate to each other.

The data will be updated quarterly following a release by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Asylum Seekers (latest quarter, 2024)

Asylum Seekers data for April – June 2024 is now available following a release by the Home Office.

Traffic volume data (2023)

The data for 2023 for traffic volume is now available following a release by the Welsh Government.

Please note that the data for 2008 to 2020 has also been revised.

We are pleased to announce that our new ‘Understanding equalities’ dashboard is now available. This dashboard was inspired by the ‘Is Wales Fairer?’ report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which uses data to assess progress on equality and human rights in Wales.

The dashboard is designed to support local councils in Wales to understand to what extent everyone can prosper and thrive at a local level. It brings together equalities data, from various sources, into one place. It allows local councils to see how each population cohort is represented and compares this across different groups.

We’re excited to be taking part in gofod3, the biggest voluntary sector event of its kind in Wales.

gofod3 is an event organised by WCVA, in collaboration with the voluntary sector in Wales. This year, for the first time since 2019, gofod3 is taking place as an in-person event on 5 June 2024 at Cardiff City Stadium.

We are really pleased to be attending gofod3 as an exhibitor! Come and meet us along with a diverse range of exhibitors from the voluntary, public and private sectors in the interactive marketplace and make connections that could help you take your work to the next level.

You can view all exhibitors here and find out more by visiting gofod3.cymru.

We are excited to publish our 'Children in poverty' dashboard, which brings together data to help you understand how many children are living in poverty across Wales and how this has changed over time.

The dashboard allows you to view the data at a Welsh local authority and UK level.

The data is based on a model produced by the End Child Poverty Coalition.

We are excited to publish our dashboard, which brings inflation data into one place to help you understand the key trends.

The impact of inflation is something we are all feeling. However, not all prices have been rising at the same rate.

The dashboard allows you to view the data by categories and sub-categories to help you understand which goods and services are driving price increases.

The fourth round of data from the 2021 census was published on 29 November by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Data is available at a local authority and local area level. It includes:

• Ethnicity
• Identity
• Language
• Religion

This data is available bilingually in InfoBaseCymru.

For more information on census data please contact Sam Sullivan.

On 2 November the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the second round of data from the 2021 census.

Demography and migration data is available at a local authority and local area level. It includes:

• All households
• Year of arrival in UK
• Length of residence in the UK
• Passports held
• Country of birth
• Usual resident population
• Population density
• Age structure (five year age bands) by sex
• Marital status
• Age structure.

To help you use and understand the data, we have:

• updated our dashboard comparing 2011 and 2021 data; and
• data (including Welsh metadata) on InfoBaseCymru.

For more information on census data please contact Sam Sullivan.

Today sees the launch of the first of our data-focused Communities of Practice (CoP). These communities aim to enable positive, constructive information sharing across the Welsh public sector in relation to all things data. And, we’d like to invite you / your organisation to get involved.

The first of the CoPs, focus on:

• PowerBI; and
• Improving access to data.

The PowerBI CoP is aimed at individuals that work in the Welsh public sector and use PowerBI to create and share data visualisations, or are keen to do so. As a member of the community, you will be able to connect with other PowerBI users, share knowledge, ask questions and build skills.

Similarly, the Improving access to data CoP is aimed at individuals that work in the Welsh public sector and want to encourage and facilitate better access to data. As a member of this community, you will connect with like-minded colleagues to share, develop and promote good practice in relation to data access and sharing.

So, if you think you could benefit from being a part of these exciting new communities, please see our CoP webpage for details on how to get involved.

We look forward to connecting with you.

The first round of data from the 2021 census was published on 28 June by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Data is available at a local authority level and includes:

• Usual resident population by sex and 5 year age band;
• Usual resident population density; and
• Number of households.

To help you use and understand the data, we have developed a suite of resources, including:

• a dashboard comparing 2001, 2011, and 2021 data;
• data (including Welsh metadata) in InfoBaseCymru; and
• a guide to Census 2021.

For more information on census data please contact Sam Sullivan.