This guide is designed to help the user understand terms and areas that might cause confusion on the Southampton Data Observatory. Including geographies used in our data and explains abbreviations. More information on sub-city is available in the Geographies dashboard on the maps page.
The Southampton Data Observatory uses several different sorts of geographies depending on the project type and audience.
Below are the main geographies used on the site:
When looking at public health data and economic data, Southampton Data Observatory uses either the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Nearest Neighbours or Office for National Statistics local comparators:
When updating the Community safety strategy and police related data Southampton Data Observatory uses iQuanta most similar authorities. The most similar authorities for Southampton are listed below:
An integrated care systems (ICS) are partnerships of organisations that come together to plan and deliver joined up health and care services, and to improve the lives of people who live and work in their area. Part of the ICS are integrated care board (or ICB) which is a statutory NHS organisation which is responsible for developing a plan for meeting the health needs of the population, managing the NHS budget and arranging for the provision of health services in a geographical area. Southampton is part of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB and also part of the sub-ICB of Hampshire and Isle Of Wight ICB - Hampshire, Southampton & Isle of Wight (D9Y0V). These ICB and Sub ICB areas also have comparators like the CIPFA neighbours, these are listed below.
Integrated Care Boards (ICB)
Sub-ICB comparators:
Local neighbours for children’s and education based data, created by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) on behalf of the Department for Education to identify local authorities similar to each other based on socio-economic characteristics of their areas.
Sub-city areas used in our data on Southampton Data Observatory include:
More information on sub-city is available in the Geographies dashboard on the maps page of the Southampton Data Observatory.
Below is a list of terms and language used on the Southampton Data Observatory:
A statistical technique used to compare populations with different age structures, in which the characteristics of the populations are statistically transformed to match those of a reference population. Useful because relative over- or under-representation of different age groups can obscure comparisons of age-dependent diseases (e.g., ischemic heart disease or malaria) across populations.
Alcohol-related hospital admissions can be used as a measure to indicate the burden of excessive alcohol consumption on the health of a population. Three hospital admissions measures can be used: alcohol-specific, alcohol-related (narrow) and alcohol-related (broad):
Alcohol-related admissions are those which can partly be attributed to alcohol
Alcohol-specific hospital admissions are where the primary or any of the secondary diagnoses are wholly attributable to alcohol
The process of rendering data into a form which does not identify individuals and where there is little or no risk of identification (identification is not likely to take place).
The body mass index (BMI) is a measure that uses your height and weight to work out if your weight is healthy. The BMI calculation divides an adult's weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared. For example, A BMI of 25 means 25kg/m2. More information on BMI is available on the NHS website (BMI).
A senior person responsible for protecting the confidentiality of patient and service user information and enabling appropriate information sharing.
A confidence interval is a range of values that is used to quantify the imprecision in the estimate of a particular indicator. Specifically, it quantifies the imprecision that results from random variation in the measurement of the indicator. A wider confidence interval shows that the indicator value presented is likely to be a less precise estimate of the true underlying value. More information is available in the APHO Technical Briefing 3: Commonly used public health statistics and their confidence intervals
This refers to the disease process, atherosclerosis, which causes narrowing of the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle. This results in impaired blood flow to the heart muscle causing symptoms including chest pain (angina) and shortness of breath. This disease process can ultimately result in a heart attack. Coronary heart disease is a major cause of death in the UK and worldwide. Coronary heart disease is sometimes called ischaemic heart disease or coronary artery disease.
Crude rates are the simplest types of rates dividing the number that something occurred for by the total population the event could have happened for. Unlike more complex age standardised rates which adjusts for the age structure of the population.
Crude birth rate is the number of live births per 1,000 population of all ages, not adjusted for age or sex
The direct method of standardisation requires that the age-specific rates for all populations being studied are available and that a standard population is defined.
The sum of years lost due to premature death (Years of life lost) and years lived with disability (YLDs). DALYs are also defined as years of healthy life lost.
The number of years that a person is expected to continue to live in a healthy condition.
Southampton City Council is using the term use rather than misuse because using stigmatising language reinforces negative stereotypes. Person-centred language focuses on the person, not their substance use.
General fertility rate is the number of live births per 1,000 female population aged 15 to 44 years, calculated using ONS mid- year population estimates.
GDP is the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period. As a broad measure of overall domestic production, it functions as a comprehensive scorecard of a given country’s economic health
GVA is the value generated by any unit engaged in the production of goods and services. How much is produced.
Healthy life expectancy is the number of years that a person at a given age can expect to live in good health, taking into account mortality and disability. Also see life expectancy.
Blood pressure is recorded with 2 numbers. The systolic pressure (higher number) is the force at which your heart pumps blood around your body. The diastolic pressure (lower number) is the resistance to the blood flow in the blood vessels between heartbeats. Measured in millimetres of mercury (mmHg). Generally high blood pressure is considered to be from 140/90mmHg (or an average of 135/85mmHg at home) – or 150/90mmHg (or an average of 145/85mmHg at home) if the person is aged over 80 years. For more information on blood pressure see
The number of new cases of a given disease during a given period in a specified population. It also is used for the rate at which new events occur in a defined population. It is differentiated from prevalence, which refers to all cases, new or old, in the population at a given time. Also see prevalence.
Number of years a person is expected to live based on their present age. For example, life expectancy at birth. More information on life expectancy is available on the life expectancy page and from the Office for National Statistics -Life expectancy website.
This refers to the disease process, atherosclerosis, which causes narrowing of the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle. This results in impaired blood flow to the heart muscle causing symptoms including chest pain (angina) and shortness of breath. This disease process can ultimately result in a heart attack.Ischemic heart disease is sometimes called colonary heart disease or coronary artery disease.
Prevalence is the proportion of a population who have a specific characteristic in a given time period. In medicine, a measure of the total number of people in a specific group who have (or had) a certain disease, condition, or risk factor (such as smoking or obesity) at a specific point in time or during a given period of time. Also see incidence.
The number of people with a specific condition or attribute at a specified time divided by the total number of people in the population. The number or proportion of cases, events or conditions in a given population. The same as percent of.
Pseudonymisation is a procedure by which identifying fields (that is, names, dates of birth and addresses) within a data record are replaced by one or more artificial identifiers to protect the privacy of individuals.
Five- year age groups, normally running from 0-4 to 90+
The first quintile represents the lowest 1/5 of values from 0-20% of the range. The second quintile includes the values from 20-40%, the third quintile includes 40-60%, the fourth quintile includes 60-80%, and the fifth quintile includes the highest 1/5 of values from 80-100%.
Replacement level fertility is the average number of children born per woman at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next, without migration.
Standard deviation or standard error is the statistical measure of the amount of variation around the mean of a distribution. It is defined as the square root of the variance. By convention, the term ‘standard deviation’ is used only when the distribution is describing variation in individual values within a population or sample. The standard deviation of a summary measure, such as the sample mean, is known as the ‘standard error’.
The Southampton Data Observatory uses 95% confidence intervals For example a 95% confidence interval of 47-53, means if researchers or analysts did the same study or analyses over and over and over again with samples of the whole population, they would get results between 47 and 53 exactly 95% of the time. More information is available in the APHO Technical Briefing 3: Commonly used public health statistics and their confidence intervals
The total fertility rate is the average number of live children that a group of women would bear if they experienced the age-specific fertility rates of the calendar year throughout their childbearing lifespan. For more information see the World Health Organisation website.
Variance is the statistical measure of the amount of variation around the mean of a distribution. The greater the variance the more widely distributed are the observed values.
Years of life lost is a measure of premature mortality that takes into account both the frequency of deaths and the age at which it occurs. Based on number of deaths below the age of 75, and the potential number of years that the person could have lived.
Years of life lived with any short-term or long-term health loss.
Z-score is a statistical measurement that describes a value's relationship to the mean of a group of values. Z-score is measured in terms of standard deviations from the mean. If a Z-score is 0, it indicates that the data point's score is identical to the mean score.
Frequently used acronyms and abbreviations used on the Southampton Data Observatory website.
ACE - Adverse Childhood Experience
APS – Annual Population Survey
ASH - Action on Smoking and Health
ASHE – Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings
BMJ - British Medical Journal
BRES – Business Register and Employment Survey
CCG – Clinical Commissioning Group (discontinued)
CHD - Coronary heart disease also known as Ischemic heart disease
CIPFA - The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy
CSP - Community Safety Partnerships
COPD - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
DfE - Department for Education
DPH – Director of Public Health
DWP – Department for Work and Pensions
EHC -Education, Health and Care plan
ELG - Early Learning Goals
EPC - Energy Performance Certificate
EYFSP - Early Years Foundation Stage Profile
FPEER - Fuel Poverty Energy Efficiency Rating
GDP – Gross Domestic Product
GDPR - The General Data Protection Regulation
GFR - General fertility rate
GVA – Gross Value Added
HESA - Higher Education Statistics Agency
HIV - Human Immunodeficiency Virus
HMO – Houses in Multiple Occupation
HMRC - His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
HRDA - High Risk Domestic Abuse
ICS – Integrated care system
ICB – Integrated Care Board
ICU - Integrated Commissioning Unit
IDACI - Income Deprivation Affecting Children, part of the IMD
IDAOPI - Income Deprivation Affecting Older People, part of the IMD
IMD - Index of Multiple Deprivation
IoD - Indices of Deprivation
JSA – Job Seekers Allowance
JSNA - Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
LA – Local Authority
LFS – Labour Force Survey
LILEE - Low Income Low Energy Efficiency
MSG – Most similar groups (iQuanta) for police data
MYE – Mid-year population estimate from Office for National Statistics
NEET – Not in Education, Employment or Training
NFER - National Foundation for Educational Research
NHS – National Health Service
NTE – Night Time Economy
OHID - Office for Health Improvement and Disparities
ONS – Office for National Statistics
PCN – Primary Care Network
PHAR – Public Health Annual Report
PNA – Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment
RTC – Road Traffic Collision
SAPF – Small Area Population Forecast from Hampshire County Council
SCC – Southampton City Council
SEND – Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
STIs - Sexually Transmitted Infections
STP - Sustainability and Transformation Plan. A planning framework for NHS services
Sub-ICB – sits under the Integrated Care Boards (ICB) which are within the ICS
SVS - Southampton Voluntary Services
TFR - Total fertility rate
TTWA - Travel to Work Area
UC – Universal Credit
UPRN – Unique Property Reference Number
VAWG - Violence Against Women and Girls
WAP – Working Age Population (people aged 16 to 64)
WHO – World Health Organisation
YOS - Youth Offending Service
Some of the main data sources that are used by the Southampton Data Observatory:
The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study provides a comprehensive picture of mortality and disability across countries, time, age, and sex. It quantifies health loss from hundreds of diseases, injuries, and risk factors, so that health systems can be improved and disparities eliminated. More information is available on the Global Burdon of Disease.
A searchable directory of all data and statistical releases published (or due to be published) by all UK government departments. This data is produced impartially and free from political influence. More information is available on the research and statistics section of GOV.UK.
The home office produces statistics and data on various subjects including crime, migration, policing and alcohol and drugs. More information is available on the statistics section of the Home Office website.
NHS England manage a number of data collections covering many aspects of health and social care and collected from a wide variety of NHS trusts, local authorities, and independent-sector organisations. Including GP populations, Hospital Episode Statistics and NCMP (childhood weight management data). More information is available on the NHS England (formally NHS Digital) website.
NOMIS is a web-based database of labour market statistics run by the University of Durham on behalf of the Office for National Statistics. NOMIS houses a range of government statistical information on the UK labour market including Census data, population estimates and projections, employment, unemployment, earnings, benefits, the Annual Population Survey and life events including mortality statistics, marriages and divorces and live births data. More information is available on the NOMIS website.
The UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics and its recognised national statistical institute. Responsible for collecting and publishing statistics related to the economy, population and society at national, regional and local levels. Also conducting the census in England and Wales every 10 years. More information is available on the Office for National Statistics website.
The Public Health profiles set out a vision for public health, that is to improve and protect the nation’s health, and improve the health of the poorest fastest. Based on a set of supporting indicators (grouped into domains) that help focus the understanding of how well each area is doing. More information is available in the Public Health profiles from the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (OHID).
Supported by the Department of Health and Social Care, SHAPE is a web enabled, evidence based application that informs and supports the strategic planning of services and assets across the public sector. The primary aim of the application is to facilitate scenario planning and option appraisals in support of public services. Its analytical and presentation features can help service commissioners to determine the service configuration that provides the most affordable access to services. The demographic and service data, combined with the information on estates location and performance, is also used to support estates strategy and business case development. To use the site a user needs to register for SHAPE on the site. More information on SHAPE is available on the SHAPE Place Atlas website.
Southampton City Council’s main website Southampton City Council
Stat-Xplore provides a guided way to explore Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefit statistics, currently holding data relating to a range of different benefits/programmes. More information is available on the Stat-Xplore website.
Last updated: 11 November 2024