Data Sources

Bolster provides standardised access to a range of Northern Ireland and UK government data sources. Each module follows the same conventions:

A top-level get_latest_*() function that downloads and returns a pandas.DataFrame ready for analysis.
Caching to ~/.cache/bolster/<source>/ to avoid repeated downloads.
A matching CLI command (bolster <command> --help).

NISRA 

The NI Statistics and Research Agency publishes a wide range of official statistics for Northern Ireland. All NISRA modules live under bolster.data_sources.nisra.

Births

Monthly birth registrations from 2006 to present, broken down by sex and by registration vs. occurrence date.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import births

df = births.get_latest_births(event_type="registration")
print(df.shape)

$ bolster nisra births

Deaths

Weekly death registrations with demographics, geography (Local Government Districts), and place-of-death breakdowns.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import deaths

df = deaths.get_latest_deaths(dimension="demographics")
print(df.head())

$ bolster nisra deaths

Marriages

Monthly marriage registrations.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import marriages

df = marriages.get_latest_marriages()

Stillbirths

Monthly stillbirth registrations.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import stillbirths

df = stillbirths.get_latest_stillbirths()

Population

Mid-year population estimates by age, sex, and Local Government District.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import population

df = population.get_latest_population()

Population Projections

Long-range population projections by age and sex scenario.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import population_projections

df = population_projections.get_latest_projections()

Migration

International and internal migration estimates for Northern Ireland.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import migration

df = migration.get_latest_migration()

Labour Market

Quarterly labour market statistics (employment, unemployment, economic inactivity).

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import labour_market

df = labour_market.get_latest_labour_market()

$ bolster nisra labour-market

Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE)

Annual workplace earnings data for Northern Ireland.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import ashe

df = ashe.get_latest_ashe()

Quarterly Employment Survey

Quarterly survey of employee jobs across the public and private sectors, providing estimates of employment levels broken down by industry grouping.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import quarterly_employment_survey as qes

df = qes.get_latest_qes()

Wellbeing

Personal and economic wellbeing indicators from the NI Wellbeing Dashboard.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import wellbeing

df = wellbeing.get_latest_wellbeing()

Cancer Waiting Times

Referral-to-treatment waiting times for cancer services.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import cancer_waiting_times

df = cancer_waiting_times.get_latest_waiting_times()

$ bolster nisra cancer-waiting-times

Emergency Care Waiting Times

Emergency department attendance and four-hour target performance.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import emergency_care_waiting_times

df = emergency_care_waiting_times.get_latest_waiting_times()

Construction Output

Quarterly construction output index for Northern Ireland.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import construction_output

df = construction_output.get_latest_construction_output()

Economic Indicators

Composite economic indicators including GVA and productivity measures.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import economic_indicators

df = economic_indicators.get_latest_economic_indicators()

Index of Production / Services

Monthly production and services indices.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import index_of_production, index_of_services

df_prod = index_of_production.get_latest_index()
df_serv = index_of_services.get_latest_index()

Composite Economic Index

The headline NI Composite Economic Index.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import composite_index

df = composite_index.get_latest_composite_index()

Registrar General Annual Report

Annual summary of births, deaths, marriages, and divorces.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra import registrar_general

df = registrar_general.get_latest_registrar_general()

Tourism — Occupancy

Monthly occupancy rates for hotels and guest accommodation.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra.tourism import occupancy

df = occupancy.get_latest_occupancy()

Tourism — Visitor Statistics

Quarterly visitor numbers and spend.

from bolster.data_sources.nisra.tourism import visitor_statistics

df = visitor_statistics.get_latest_visitor_statistics()

PSNI 

The Police Service of Northern Ireland publishes open-data releases covering crime and road safety. All PSNI modules live under bolster.data_sources.psni.

Crime Statistics

Monthly crime statistics broken down by offence type, district command unit, and outcome.

from bolster.data_sources.psni import crime_statistics

df = crime_statistics.get_latest_crime_statistics()

Road Traffic Collisions

Annual road traffic collision data with casualty severity and road type.

from bolster.data_sources.psni import road_traffic_collisions

df = road_traffic_collisions.get_latest_collisions()

DVA — Driver and Vehicle Agency 

Monthly test statistics from the NI Driver and Vehicle Agency.

from bolster.data_sources import dva

vehicles = dva.get_vehicle_test_statistics()
drivers  = dva.get_driver_test_statistics()
theory   = dva.get_theory_test_statistics()

$ bolster dva vehicle-tests
$ bolster dva driver-tests
$ bolster dva theory-tests

NI Water 

Drinking water quality data for all NI supply zones.

from bolster.data_sources.ni_water import get_water_quality, get_water_quality_by_zone

df = get_water_quality()
zone = get_water_quality_by_zone("BALM")  # Belfast Malone

$ bolster water-quality --postcode "BT1 1AA"

EONI — Electoral Office for Northern Ireland 

NI Assembly election results (2016 and 2022).

from bolster.data_sources.eoni import get_results

df_2022 = get_results(2022)
df_2016 = get_results(2016)

$ bolster ni-elections 2022

NI House Price Index 

Standardised house price index for Northern Ireland.

from bolster.data_sources.ni_house_price_index import build

df = build()

$ bolster ni-house-prices

Companies House 

UK Companies House public data — basic company details and registered companies connected to a given address (useful for research on specific organisations).

from bolster.data_sources.companies_house import (
    query_basic_company_data,
    get_companies_house_records_that_might_be_in_farset,
)

details = query_basic_company_data("12345678")

$ bolster companies-house --query "Farset Labs"

Met Office 

UK precipitation maps from the Met Office DataPoint API.

Requires the environment variable MET_OFFICE_API_KEY.

from bolster.data_sources.metoffice import get_uk_precipitation

img = get_uk_precipitation(order_name="my-order")

$ bolster get-precipitation --order-name "my-order"

Gender Pay Gap 

UK Gender Pay Gap reporting data from 2017 to present (all employers with 250+ employees).

from bolster.data_sources import gender_pay_gap

df = gender_pay_gap.get_gender_pay_gap_data()

$ bolster gender-pay-gap

Wikipedia 

Structured data from NI-related Wikipedia tables (e.g. the NI Executive composition table).

from bolster.data_sources.wikipedia import get_ni_executive_basic_table

df = get_ni_executive_basic_table()

$ bolster ni-executive

Discovering New Publications 

NISRA publishes new datasets regularly. Use the RSS feed integration to discover publications before they are implemented as modules:

$ bolster nisra feed --limit 20

Or programmatically:

from bolster.utils.rss import get_nisra_statistics_feed

feed = get_nisra_statistics_feed(limit=20)
for entry in feed.entries:
    print(entry.published.date(), entry.title)