Information Sources

In constructing this blog, I will uncover a number of useful sources of information.  I will list these here.  They shall be sorted alphabetically in the first instance, and may be split into categories as their number increases.

• 2011 Census (England & Wales).  Findings and results, data and interactive reports.  For the Scottish version, see 'Scotland's Census 2011', below.
• BBC News (UK). No introduction needed!
• British Social Attitudes Survey (UK).  This regular survey asks the British people a range of probing questions about how they feel about themselves.  It's really useful for all kinds of questions, and certainly helps me to inform debate.  The latest full report is available here.
• The Charities Commission (England & Wales).  The charities regulator for England and Wales, who provide a wealth of useful information for assessing the performance of registered charities.
• Charity Watch UK Blog (UK).  Blog which exposes unethical practices and maladministration of major charities.
• Google Ngram Viewer (International).  When I want to display graphs of data about countries, this is the first place I look.  It takes data from all kinds of reputable sources (e.g. the World Bank and the United Nations) and makes neat little interactive graphs.
• Gov.uk (UK).  The UK government's website.  Well designed (it won the Design Museum's 'Design of the Year' award in 2013) and easy to use, with links to a multitude of data and reports, etc.
• The Guardian (UK/US/Australia)  One of my favourite newspapers, now expanding internationally, with something of a left-wing slant.
• Health Survey for England (England).  Useful as a fact-check for claims about health.
• Office of the Scottish Charity Register (Scotland).  Similar to the Charities Commission (above), but for Scotland.
• Quora (US based, international).  Excellent Q&A website.  I often find this a useful way to canvas opinion, and is also helpful when I want to ask about an obscure topic.
• Scotland's Census 2011 (Scotland).  Similar to '2011 Census' (England & Wales: above), but for Scotland.
• The Washington Post (USA).  A newspaper which produces many interesting blogs that I like to read regularly.  My favourite is Wonkblog, which is one of the best mainstream data blogs I have found.  It focuses on US economic and domestic policy.