Annual Respondents Database X, UK
This dataset unites different structural business surveys including, among others, the Annual Business Survey and the Annual Business Inquiry.
The Annual Respondents Database X (ARDx) is a research dataset combining:
- Annual Business Survey (2009 onwards)
- Annual Business Inquiry (1998 to 2008)
Including predecessor structural business surveys:
- Annual Census of Manufacturing
- Annual Census of Construction
- Annual Distribution Inquiry
- Annual Services Trades Inquiries (up to 1997)
ARDx version 3 includes values merged from the Business Register Employment Survey (2009 onwards) to match the Annual Business Inquiry questions.
ARDx version 4 does not include values from the Business Register Employment Survey.
Despite the names, these surveys are a mixture of random stratified sampling of small and medium firms and full census sampling of large firms. The surveys are carried out at the IDBR reporting unit level, however, include Office for National Statistics' (ONS) apportionment of respondent values to the reporting unit’s local unit.
The Annual Business Inquiry was split into a part 1 (which was joined with the Annual Register Inquiry, now the Business Register Employment Survey) and part 2 (later the Annual Business Survey).
ARDx datasets include the respondent datasets, the reporting unit sample frame universe datasets, and further datasets with the sample frame local unit universe matched to the reporting units – for 2009 onwards, these datasets are almost exact copies of the datasets in the ABS data asset.
In addition to uniting the structural business surveys, ARDx contains the capital stock estimates dataset, which is an ONS-produced dataset estimating the total capital stock for each reporting unit.
Many researchers will want to access both the main ABS dataset (which is updated faster) and ARDx dataset.
All data hosted on the Integrated Data Service (IDS) are de-identified.