Using linked consumer registers to estimate residential moves in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper argues that frequently updated data on the nature of residential moves and the circumstances of movers in the United Kingdom are insufficient for many research purposes. Accordingly, we develop previous research reported in this Journal to re-purpose consumer and administrative data in order to develop annual estimates of residential mobility between all UK neighbourhoods. We use a unique digital corpus of linked individual and household-level consumer registers compiled by the UK Consumer Data Research Centre, comprising over 143 million unique address records pertaining to the entire UK adult population over the period 1997–2016. We describe how records pertaining to individuals vacating a property can be assigned to their most probable residential destination, based on novel methods of matching names, assessing household composition, and using information on the date and probable distance of residential moves. We believe that the results of this analysis contribute highly granular, frequently updated estimates of residential moves that can be used to chart population-wide outcomes of residential mobility and migration behaviour, as well as the socio-spatial characteristics of the sedentary population.