ONS Consultation on International Migration Outpus

The Office for National Statistics is beginning a review into the methods used to produce the migration assumptions which feed into the production of the national population projections. The current methodology was introduced for the 1991-based national population projections with some later modifications made for the 1996-based NPPs. However patterns of migration and data availability have changed since then which is why ONS are taking forward this review.

 A project board has been set up and consists of the NPP Committee, the Head of ONS's Migration Statistics Unit and a representative from ONS's Methodology Directorate. The review work itself will be carried out by Jakub Bijak of the University of Southampton over the summer of 2012

It is important to that the new methods are not only statistically robust but that they meet user needs and therefore ONS are consulting with key stakeholders through a User Forum. They are also interested in hearing from any other users of the population projections who would like to feed in their views on the content and timing of any of the following statistical outputs:

* Migration flows
* Population stocks
* Local Area Migration Indicators
* Migration Reporting
* Data Explorer Tool

For details on the consultation and how to respond please see the ONS website:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/consultations/open-consultations/international-migration/index.html or contact Suzie Dunsmith at natpopproj@ons.gsi.gov.ukor or by phoning 01329 444023.

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