Find datasets by browsing area

Statistics.gov.scot offers a variety of ways to find data. This guide describes how to find an individual dataset by browsing by area using the Atlas feature. You can also search for an area by place name or postcode. Other guides are available for working with data within a dataset, once you have found the data you are interested in.

Find a Dataset for an area by browsing

If you don’t know the exact name of the area you want data for (for example, if you’re working at a more granular intermediate zone or data zone level) then the Atlas section is the way to find it.

  • Select the Atlas tab in the top toolbar of the homepage
  • This takes you to the default Atlas page. This page is for the whole of Scotland. Scroll down the page to the Locations section.


  • The list on the far left is area type. In the example above, Council Areas are the default area type and, on the right, there is an alphabetically ordered list of council areas in Scotland. To find data for intermediate zones or data zones within Stirling (for example), go to Stirling Council Area first. You can do this either by clicking the blue text in the list of locations or by zooming in on the map and selecting the name of the council area.

  • This takes you to the Atlas page for the council area chosen

  • Scroll to the locations section and select the area type you want data for. In this example I select intermediate zones (2011) and get an alphabetical list of the zones as well as their outline on a map.


  • Select either the name (if you know it) or use the map to find the location you want data for. In this example I use the map, which is useful if you know where the area is but not its official name.

  • Select the name of the zone you want data for. This takes you to a new Atlas page for that area. As with all Atlas pages, scroll to the Datasets section to view datasets for that area. Below is a list of dataset categories and, to its right a list of alphabetically ordered datasets.


  • Select the dataset that you’re interested in. This will take you to the page for the dataset.


Summary

  • To browse the data by area, go to the Atlas tab in the toolbar at the top of the homepage and scroll to the Locations section.
  • In Locations, the default area type is Council Areas. To view data for intermediate zones or datazones belonging to a specific council area, select that council area first. Choose from the alphabetised list on the right or find it on the map and select it. To view other area types, select the area type of choice from the list on the left and then click on the result you want to view data for (for example, when you select electoral ward, 7 results appear to the right and choose from one of those).
  • At the Atlas page of the area you want, scroll to the Datasets section.
  • Datasets here are ordered by category and alphabetically.
  • Select the dataset of interest.

To continue exploring our data, go to statistics.gov.scot

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