About our data
Data Showcase
The UK Biobank Data Showcase provides a summary of all the information gathered by UK Biobank on our 500,000 participants and is available to explore. Not only does this contain background information on how these data were collected, it also includes notes about future collections. Before applying to access UK Biobank data, or if you are already accessing data, please keep up to date by checking the notes and additional resources provided with categories and data-fields for useful information. Please note: data is only accessible through our Research Analysis Platform.
New data & enhancements to UK Biobank
UK Biobank has collected and continues to collect extensive environmental, lifestyle, and genetic data on half a million participants. New data are uploaded into the database regularly.
Registered researchers receive emails when new data are available for release. Information on the timelines for data releases, can be found below.
UK Biobank participants have generously provided a very wide range of information about their health and well-being since recruitment began in 2006. This has been added to in the following ways:
- Imaging: Brain, heart and full body MR imaging, plus full body DEXA scan of the bones and joints and an ultrasound of the carotid arteries. The goal is to image 100,000 participants, and to invite participants back for a repeat scan some years later.
- Genetics: Whole genome sequencing for all 500,000 participants, whole exome sequencing for 470,000 participants, genotyping (800,000 genome-wide variants and imputation to 90 million variants).
- Health linkages: Linkage to a wide range of electronic health-related records, including death, cancer, hospital admissions and primary care records.
- Biomarkers: Data on more than 30 key biochemistry markers from all participants, taken from samples collected at recruitment and the first repeat assessment.
- Activity monitor: Physical activity data over a 7-day period collected via a wrist-worn activity monitor for 100,000 participants plus a seasonal follow-up on a subset.
- Online questionnaires: Data on a range of exposures and health outcomes that are difficult to assess via routine health records, including diet, food preferences, work history, pain, cognitive function, digestive health and mental health.
- Repeat baseline assessments: A full baseline assessment is undertaken during the imaging assessment of 100,000 participants.
- Samples: Blood & urine was collected from all participants, and saliva for 100,000.
Future enhancements
We welcome and encourage researchers from industry, charity and academia to put forward their suggestions on enhancements to the data in UK Biobank to enable scientific discoveries and improve human health. If researchers have ideas, please do get in touch.
Join the online Community
An online Community has been established for those using UK Biobank data. Ask questions, share experiences and request support from the teams at UK Biobank. It is our intention that as the platform evolves it enables broad and diverse health research; so log on using your AMS credentials and share your knowledge to help others performing their analyses.
Update on COVID-19
UK Biobank is involved in important activities to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. We are making regular updates of health records to registered researchers to enable research into the determinants and consequences of COVID-19. This includes data from diagnostic tests, hospital inpatient admissions (including critical care), death and primary care records. We are also undertaking a study to measure SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in 20,000 UK Biobank participants and their children over time to assess seroprevalence across the UK and to measure the extent to which antibody levels change over time.
Do you have a question about your dataset?
If you have any questions about the data you have received, please navigate to the category or data-field of interest and check the Data, Notes and Resources tabs in Data Showcase for supporting information. If you believe there is an error in your data, please contact the Access Team. Please note that under no circumstances should you share any of your UK Biobank dataset either with other researchers, for example by email, or by making it available in a public forum, for example by posting it to message boards, to resolve your query. If there is a problem with your dataset which our Data Analysts are unable to replicate, we will arrange a secure data transfer.
Baseline assessment
UK Biobank recruited 500,000 people aged between 40-69 years in 2006-2010 from across the UK. They have undergone a wide range of physical measures, provided information on their lifestyle and medical history, donated blood, urine and saliva samples for future analysis and agreed to have their health followed up through linkage to their health-related records.
Explore our data
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