It houses the largest collection of social sciences and population digital data in the UK.

[3][4] Located in Colchester, the UK Data Archive is a specialist department of the University of Essex,[5] co-located with the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER).

It is primarily funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the University of Essex.

The Archive also provides access to important international macrodata series (aggregate data) such as those held by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank via its partnership with Mimas.

[14][15] The UK Data Archive also works closely with national and international partners on data-related projects and initiatives.

Finally, in 2000, in order to reflect both its UK-wide remit and the importance of its role within an international context, the organization became the UK Data Archive.

In 2007, the Archive's 40th year, it relocated to a new purpose-built building on the University of Essex campus along with the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

It was funded jointly by the ESRC and Jisc and now forms the core of the UK Data Service.

It was funded initially by the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust and eventually jointly by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Jisc.

Relu projects investigate the social, economic, environmental and technological challenges faced by rural areas in the United Kingdom in an interdisciplinary manner, and involve the integration of social, economical, biological, agricultural and environmental science data.

Relu-DSS also provided the UK Data Archive and CEH with sufficient information to enable them to plan for the management, longer-term preservation and re-use of Relu datasets.

[40] The Secure Data Service was established and funded by the ESRC in 2009 to help approved members of the research community access data that were previously considered too sensitive, detailed, confidential or potentially disclosive to be made available under standard licensing and dissemination arrangements.

[44] They are also required to undergo training on how to use Secure Lab, on the principles of statistical disclosure control, and on their legal rights and responsibilities.

All data remain on the secure server, and final publications are only able to be removed after careful vetting for statistical disclosure issues.

The service was coordinated from the University of Essex under the Directorship of Professor Peter Lynn and with partners at four other academic centres.

[48] This service produced statistics (including frequency counts and cross tabulations using either single datasets or more complex time series) for customers who are not in a position to analyze the underlying data themselves.