Population Data BC (PopData) supports research access to individual-level, de-identified longitudinal data on British Columbia’s 5 million residents. Linkage of data across different sectors, such as health, education, childhood development, workplace and the environment, enables the pursuit of innovative research that would not otherwise be possible.
We currently manage over 30 data sets from federal and provincial sources. We refer to these as 'internally-managed' data sets and link these to each other and to researcher-collected data, where approved. Over the years we have also linked internally-managed data to external data from over 60 data providers. A list of data sets available to Researchers through PopData may be found in the Data Available section of this website.
PopData uses personal identifiers and mathematical linkage techniques to link records belonging to the same individual across files and over time.
We are a Trusted Third Party for Linkage (TTPL) as:
- We are not a data provider and we do not approve data access requests
- We do not conduct research or have our own research agenda
- We are university-based and publicly funded.
For more details on how we link data, please visit the Data Linkage section of this website.
