National Centre for Social Research

TheNational Centre for Social Research (NatCen)is a registered charity and is the largest independent social research institute in the UK.The research charity was founded in 1969 bySir Roger Jowelland Gerald Hoinville with the aim of carrying out rigorous social policy research to improve society.

NatCen is best known for its annualBritish Social Attitudes Survey,founded by the organisation in 1983.The British Social Attitudes survey is Britain's longest-running annual survey of public attitudes and can be accessed for research through theUK Data Service.It uses a random probability method and face to face interviews with more than 3,000 people to ensure that it achieves a sample that is representative of Britain.NatCen's sister organisation, theScottish Centre for Social Research(ScotCen), carries out an equivalent of the survey in Scotland, called theScottish Social Attitudes survey.

In addition to the British Social Attitudes survey, NatCen collects a number of statistics on behalf of the UK government and government bodies. These include theHealth Survey for England,the English Housing Survey,The National Diet and Nutrition Surveyand the Study of Early Education and Development (SEED).In 2015 NatCen also launched a new panel survey called the NatCen Panel, which was the first panel survey in the UK to use a probability methodology.

The National Centre for Social Research is not just a survey organisation, however, it is also well regarded for its research using qualitative and evaluation methods. NatCen researchers authored one of the key textbooks for qualitative researchersQualitative Research Practicepublished bySAGE Publishing.