The National Centre for Social Research is a registered charity trading as NatCen Social Research and is the largest independent social research institute in the UK. The research charity was founded in 1969 by Sir Roger Jowell and Gerald Hoinville with the aim of carrying out rigorous social policy research to improve society. NatCen is best known for its annual British Social Attitudes Survey, founded by the organisation in 1983. The British Social Attitudes survey is Britain's longest-running annual survey of public attitudes and can be accessed for research through the

UK Data Service The UK Data Service is the largest digital repository for quantitative and qualitative social science and humanities research data in the United Kingdom. The organisation is funded by the UK government through the Economic and Social Research ...

. It uses a random probability method and face to face interviews with more than 3,000 people to ensure that it achieves a sample that is representative of Britain. NatCen's sister organisation, the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen), carries out an equivalent of the survey in Scotland, called the

Scottish Social Attitudes survey The Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, started in 1999, is an annual survey of public opinion in Scotland, funded by the public purse. Conducted by the Scottish branch oNatCen Social Research in conjunction with the Unit for the Study of Gove ...

. In addition to the British Social Attitudes survey, NatCen collects a number of statistics on behalf of the UK government and government bodies. These include the Health Survey for England, the English Housing Survey, The National Diet and Nutrition Survey and the Study of Early Education and Development (SEED). In 2015 NatCen also launched a new panel survey called the NatCen Panel, which was the first panel survey in the UK to use a probability methodology. The National Centre for Social Research is not just a survey organisation, however, it is also well regarded for its research using qualitative and evaluation methods. NatCen researchers authored one of the key textbooks for qualitative researchers ''Qualitative Research Practice'' published by

Sage Publishing SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California. It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 books ...

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{{DEFAULTSORT:National Center for Social Research Demographics of the United Kingdom Demographics organizations Organisations based in the London Borough of Islington Organizations established in 1969 Social sciences organizations Opinion polling in the United Kingdom Public opinion research companies