Harmonised standards and guidance by topic
What are harmonised standards and guidance?
Harmonised standards and guidance are tools for improving the comparability and coherence of statistics.
Being harmonised is about aligning with others, not necessarily being identical to them. As such, some of our harmonised standards can be tailored for specific situations. Further information on the importance of harmonisation can be found on the dedicated harmonisation page of this website, or in the United Kingdom (UK) Statistics Authority’s explanation of how coherence relates to the Code of Practice for Statistics.
Harmonised standards include definitions, survey questions, suggested presentations and information for data users. Producers of statistics can use these harmonised standards to align with others, which will increase the usefulness of their statistics.
In some circumstances, it is not appropriate to suggest harmonised questions and definitions. In these cases, harmonisation guidance explains the topic landscape to help users understand where they can and cannot compare data.
Work on the standards has been developed by topic groups, after wide consultation across the Government Statistical Service (GSS) and beyond.
Topics
On this page we list the standards and guidance by topic.
Age and date of birth harmonised standard
Cohabitation harmonised standard
Definition of a household harmonisation guidance
Household reference person harmonised standard
Household relationships harmonised standard
Marital or partnership status harmonised standard
National identity harmonised standard
Sexual orientation data harmonised standard
Sex and gender harmonisation guidance
Gender identity data harmonised standard
General health harmonised standard
Long lasting health conditions and illness harmonised standard
Activity restriction harmonised standard
Measuring disability with EU data harmonisation guidance
Measuring disability for the Equality Act 2010 harmonisation guidance
Mental health harmonisation guidance
Impairment harmonised standard
Unpaid care harmonised standard
Coronavirus (COVID-19) harmonisation guidance
Pregnancy and maternity harmonisation guidance