This is a free service that allows you to access and download data from a database of more than 40,000 economic and socio-economic time series.
You can access complete data histories of the time series published in the main tables of major National Statistics economic publications.
You can download complete releases or make your own selection of series and time periods to view or download. You can bookmark the webpage which allows you to download complete releases, but you cannot bookmark the active pages for individual series selection.
This website service provides data, but not the accompanying metadata and text found in the complete economic publications.
We catalogue our data by assigning a four character code to each time series. The contents of each release, a list of time series titles listed by table and four character code, can be accessed in the Contents area.
Using Time Series Data to download a complete release
Click on "download releases" in the banner on the Time Series Data homepage
You will now see a list of releases, along with a choice of formats, Navidata or text (ASCII plain text file), and the date the file was last updated
Find the release you want to download and click on the format you require
Download the zipped file to your PC and then unzip the file
If you are downloading in Navidata format, then the default path to extract the unzipped data will be c:\navidat3\onsdata
If you want to use the data in spreadsheet software such as Excel, the easiest way is to download the data in Navidata format and then use the command in the software to "Save Table As" a file in CSV (comma or tab separated) format.
If you want to download the free-of charge Navidata software from our website, click on the Navidata option in the navigation panel on the left of the screen.
Using Time Series Data to make your own custom selection - helpful hints
Using the the navigation, go to 'Contents' for the full list of releases. Go to Access Series to search for and view data.
If you want to view or download your own selection of data, you must use the drop-down menu system to drill down through Releases, Tables and Series, and .
When selecting more than one time series, pick up consecutive items by holding down the shift key and clicking on the first and the last items required. All the items in beween will be highlighted. To pick up non-consecutive items, hold down the control (Ctrl) key and select each series you want.
Select series in the database as you would add items to a 'shopping basket'. To get a series, use 'Add to Selection'.
When you have added an item, you can view a list of your series selections and their Start and End Dates. Click on the down arrow to the left of the Go button to see what options are available. At this stage you can choose to download the data, remove series from the basket or select specific data periods.
To view or download the data, select 'Download'. Now you can choose whether to download, or just to view the data on screen.
You can view and download up to 50 series at a time from a single table. To view more than 50 series, or to view series from a range of different tables and releases, follow the above steps again.for each table of data that you need.
Need more help? A step-by-step guide to Time Series Data
If you're still unsure of how Time Series Data works, follow the example below.
You've been asked to find some data about the number of women under 35 who are employed in the UK, by month for the last 10 years. You browse the list of releases in the Time Series Data contents and decide to look at 'Labour Market Statistics - Integrated FR'.
1. Releases
Go to 'Access Series', and choose 'Labour Market Statistics - Integrated FR' from the list of releases. Having selected your release, you need to see the tables contained in it by choosing 'View Tables' and then hitting the 'Go' button.
2. Tables
Find and select the table 'FR2: Employment by age: LFS TIME PERIODS'. Now you want to look at the series contained in your selected table. To do this, choose 'View Series' and hit the 'Go' button.
3. Series
You want data for all women under 35, but find three separate series that cover women in work between the ages of 16 and 34, so select all three series:
Choose 'Add to Selection' from the drop-down menu and press 'Go'.
4. Refining your selection
You want to view the data before downloading it. Choose 'Refine Selection/Download' and press 'Go'. You'll see the four series you have selected. You'll see from the period table (right) that the data go back to 1992, and are available by quarter and month.
As you only need monthly figures for the last 10 years, select 'Custom Periods' from the drop-down menu, and press 'Go'. You can now remove the quarter parameters and change the monthly start parameter from 1992M4 to 1993M8. Press 'Submit' to save these criteria. The period box now looks like this.
Period boxes showing default and customised reporting period for the selected dataset
Years
Quarters
Months
Start
not set
1992 Q2
1992 Apr
End
not set
2003 Q2
2003 Jul
Years
Quarters
Months
Start
not set
not set
1993 Aug
End
not set
not set
2003 Jul
5. Accessing the data
Select 'Download' and press 'Go'. Choose 'View on-screen' to see what you've selected and press 'Go', and your data are displayed. To download the data, click on the down arrow to the left of the 'Go' button and select 'Download CSV' or 'Download Navidata'. If you choose 'Download CSV', you can open the downloaded file within Microsoft Excel or other popular spreadsheet software. If you choose 'Download Navidata' you can only open the file using Navidata software, but you can export data from Navidata in .CSV or other formats.
Access individual series