Scottish Historic Population Platform (SHiPP)

Status: Active

Categories: Data linkage programmes, ADR Scotland

26 March 2026

This project aims to create a research-ready database based on Scottish civil registration certificates of births, deaths, and marriages from 1855 to 1973.

The research team will develop and apply novel linkage techniques to link these historical certificates, reconstructing individuals’ life courses and generating family pedigrees (diagrams that show family histories). They will also link these certificates to the National Records for Scotland Population Spine, thereby allowing linkage to other administrative datasets. The resulting database will be called the Scottish Historic Population Platform (SHiPP).

The SHiPP database will be the first of its kind in the UK. It will be comparable to databases already established in Scandinavia and beyond. These include the Swedish Demographic Data Base, the Norwegian Historical Population Registers, the Historical Sample of the Netherlands, and the Utah Population Database.

The construction of the SHiPP database will allow historical longitudinal demographic research to be carried out at the individual level. It will additionally enable researchers to analyse multiple generations of micro-data, exploring the condition of the present Scottish population within the context of their families.

The data

The research will use the Scottish Statutory Registers of Births, Deaths, and Marriages (1855-1973).

When the SHiPP database has been developed and the data is research-ready (no earlier than Summer 2026), this webpage will be updated to provide details of the process for researchers to request access to the data.

If you would like to be notified when the data is available please email the SHiPP team. Please note that we will adhere to SCADR's Privacy Statement when communicating with interested parties.