Addressing people in Scotland - linking CHI and UPRN using CURL

This study aims to link CHI (Community Health Index) and UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number) to more precisely understand the context and environment in which people live, such as better understanding households.

Research focus

The UPRN, which is encrypted, enables researchers to identify properties in Scotland, and state what type of property it is, for example a shared residential building, a work place or office, bungalow or a flat. By linking UPRN with the CHI, we will create a 'persistent identifier' and an administrative data indicator for households in Scotland.

Data sources

Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN)
Community Health Index (CHI)
2011 Census

What this will enable researchers to do

Having this persistent identifier will allow researchers to link it to other datasets to compare and analyse different groups of people. For example, during Covid-19:

Linking the CHI and UPRN to death certificates in Scotland to ascertain if there was a peak of deaths living in a shared residential building, such as a care home.
Linking the CHI and UPRN to identify whether people living with people from higher risk occupations were at an increased risk of contracting Covid-19.
Linking the CHI and UPRN to Police Scotland data on Covid-19 fines being issued, to review socio-economic circumstances of people who have not followed government guidelines.

A new tool - the CHI-UPRN Residential Linkage File (CURL) file - has been developed and is available for research use. Please refer to this introductory guide for further details on the CURL tool and how to access it.