The Historical Data of Northern Ireland series is a collection of official statistics for Northern Ireland, published at regular intervals by the United Kingdom’s Stationery Office. The data are sourced from two publications: the Ulster Year Book. The Official Handbook of Northern Ireland, which covers the period from the early 1920s to the late 1970s, and Northern Ireland Annual Abstract of Statistics, which covers the period from the late 1970s to the early 2000s.
Despite their critical importance for understanding the socio-economic development of Northern Ireland, these data had never been systematically digitised until now. Thanks to funding provided under the Higher Education Authority’s North South Research Programme, the Centre for Economics, Policy and History (CEPH) has digitised series from both the Ulster Year Book. The Official Handbook of Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Annual Abstract of Statistics.
In order to make these data publicly available in a structured format, CEPH has entered into an agreement with the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) under which NISRA will host the data. The inclusion of these data within NISRA’s existing architecture ensures their preservation and long-term accessibility.
You can access this newly digitised data from the Statistical Abstracts in NISRA’s Open Data Statistical Database, NISRA Data Portal, here.
Note: The Historical Data of Northern Ireland complement official statistics for the Free State and Republic of Ireland, which were digitised by CEPH in 2024. These data are available through the Central Statistics Office’s PxStat database: https://data.cso.ie/
and 
by