Scottish Government Statistics MCP Server

Scottish Government Statistics

statistics.gov.scot is the Scottish Government's official open data platform built on linked data (RDF). Data is queried via a SPARQL endpoint.

Data Model

• Datasets — Statistical datasets identified by URI (e.g. http://statistics.gov.scot/data/earnings). Each dataset has observations with dimensions and measures.
• Dimensions — Categories like geography, time period, gender, age group.
• Measures — Numeric values (counts, percentages, rates).
• Geographies — Scottish council areas, health boards, parliamentary constituencies, data zones.

Common Dataset URIs

• http://statistics.gov.scot/data/earnings — Earnings by geography and gender
• http://statistics.gov.scot/data/house-sales-prices — House prices
• http://statistics.gov.scot/data/economic-inactivity — Economic inactivity
• http://statistics.gov.scot/data/mid-year-pop-est — Mid-year population estimates
• http://statistics.gov.scot/data/crime-and-justice — Crime and justice
• http://statistics.gov.scot/data/hospital-admissions — Hospital admissions

SPARQL Patterns

List all datasets

SELECT DISTINCT ?dataset ?label
WHERE {
  ?dataset a <http://publishmydata.com/def/dataset#Dataset> .
  ?dataset <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#label> ?label
}
ORDER BY ?label

Get observations from a dataset

SELECT ?geo ?period ?value
WHERE {
  ?obs <http://purl.org/linked-data/cube#dataSet> <http://statistics.gov.scot/data/earnings> .
  ?obs <http://purl.org/linked-data/sdmx/2009/dimension#refArea> ?geo .
  ?obs <http://purl.org/linked-data/sdmx/2009/dimension#refPeriod> ?period .
  ?obs <http://statistics.gov.scot/def/measure-properties/median> ?value
}
LIMIT 20

Gotchas

• Queries can be slow for large datasets; always use LIMIT
• The SPARQL endpoint accepts POST with query form parameter
• Results return as application/sparql-results+json
• Geographic URIs use Scottish-specific codes (S-codes)
• Time periods are URIs like http://reference.data.gov.uk/id/year/2023