Telling Scotland's Health Story

Whether you’re a seasoned data viz expert or you’re just getting started, this is your chance to get creative with real-world data, tell an interesting story and put your skills to the test!

This year’s competition challenges you to explore Scotland’s health through data, uncovering insights that could change how we understand the factors shaping our health and wellbeing.

You’ll have the opportunity to develop your data visualisation skills, show off your talents, and raise your profile within our global community of data and AI professionals, students and enthusiasts.

Download the data: 4th November 2026
Submissions open: 25 November 2026
Submissions close: 15 January 2027

About the competition

The Data Lab Community’s Data Visualisation Competition invites you to use real-world data to create a compelling visual story.

You’ll have until 15th January 2027 to develop and submit your project, which will be judged on clarity and communication, creativity and design, and data analysis, understanding and accuracy.

The competition is open to everyone, from students and beginners to experienced data professionals. You can enter individually or as part of a team.

The Challenge

What can you tell us about the health of Scotland, and how could those insights help us make better decisions?

Behind every health statistic is a bigger story about people, place, and communities. This year’s challenge invites you to explore those stories and bring them to life through data visualisation.

Using datasets provided by Public Health Scotland, your task is to uncover an interesting insight and turn it into a compelling visual story.

Your visualisation should help people understand an issue, challenge an assumption, highlight an inequality or identify an opportunity to improve health and wellbeing.

To help inspire your thinking, Public Health Scotland’s strategy identifies five key areas for improving population health:

• Building a prevention-focused system
• Improving social and economic factors
• Strengthening places and communities
• Enabling healthy living
• Providing equitable access to health and care

Your entry should explore one or more of these areas, using data to tell a story that matters.

We’re not just looking for attractive charts or dashboards. We want to see how you can use data creatively to communicate something meaningful, spark conversations or inspire action.

Finding your story 

As you develop your entry, there are three key questions to think about.

Who are you telling your story to? 

Think about who would benefit from your insights. It could be policymakers, healthcare professionals, community organisations, local authorities or members of the public.

What is your story? 

What interesting patterns, trends or insights can you uncover? What do you want people to understand, question or think differently about? How does your story connect to the factors shaping Scotland’s health?

How will you bring it to life? 

Think creatively about how best to communicate your findings. You could use maps, infographics, interactive dashboards, animations, network diagrams or something completely different.

Looking for inspiration? 

There are lots of different directions you could take your project. For example:

• Are some communities more likely to experience preventable injuries than others?
• How has demand for emergency care changed across different parts of Scotland?
• What can prescribing patterns tell us about health needs and inequalities?
• Can combining health and socioeconomic data reveal unexpected relationships?
• Where might preventative action have the greatest impact on improving health outcomes?

These are just a few ideas to get you thinking. We encourage you to explore the data, follow your curiosity, and find a story that interests you.

The most successful entries will use data creatively and effectively to communicate an important insight, challenge assumptions and help others see Scotland’s health through a different lens.

Explore the datasets

We’ve teamed up with Public Health Scotland to provide three groups of datasets from the Scottish Health and Social Care Open Data platform, specially prepared for this year’s competition.

The datasets cover three areas of Scotland’s health and healthcare system.

A&E Attendances

Investigate patterns in emergency department and minor injury unit activity, including attendance types and performance against the four-hour target.

Two files are available, Level 1 and Level 2, covering activity from July 2007 to June 2026:

• Level 1: Activity: Number of A&E attendances across 103 sites by month
• Level 2: Demographics: Number of A&E attendances across 14 health board areas by month

Unintentional Injuries

Explore hospital admissions and deaths resulting from unintentional injuries across Scotland, with breakdowns by age, sex, location and injury type.

Two files are available:

• File A: Hospital admissions from 2015/16 to 2024/25.
• File B: Deaths from unintentional injuries from 2015 to 2024.

Community Prescribing

Explore how prescribing activity, drugs dispensed, dispensing volumes and costs vary across Scotland and over time.

Four files are available:

• Files A, B and C: Prescribing data covering different periods between 2019 and 2026, including dispensing locations, prescription volumes, and costs.
• Reference file: Published high-level statistics to provide additional context.

Which dataset should I choose?

You must use at least one of the three competition dataset groups in your entry, but you’re welcome to explore more than one.

Each dataset offers different levels of detail and complexity, so there’s something for everyone. If you’re new to data visualisation, you might prefer to start with a smaller or simpler dataset. If you’re more experienced, you can explore more detailed data, combine multiple sources or experiment with more advanced techniques.

The important thing is choosing data that helps you tell a compelling story.

Can I use other data?

Of course! As long as your entry uses at least one of the competition datasets, you’re welcome and encouraged to bring in other publicly available data to help develop your story.

For example, you might want to explore connections between health outcomes and factors such as poverty, employment, housing, environment, or access to services.

You may wish to include any other data from Scottish Health and Social Care Open Data Dashboard, or data from other sources such as find.data.gov.scot, Open Data Scotland, UK Data Service, The World Bank.

Combining different sources could help you uncover new patterns, challenge assumptions, or reveal a story that might otherwise go unnoticed.

How will the competition be judged?

We’re looking for visualisations that combine strong data analysis with creativity and effective storytelling. Judges will evaluate the data visualisations based on three main criteria:

1. Clarity and communication  
How effectively does your visualisation communicate its message? Is the story clear, engaging, and appropriate for its intended audience?

2. Creativity & Design 
How creatively and effectively have you used visualisation techniques to bring your story to life?

Judges will consider innovative approaches, thoughtful and accessible use of colour, as well as creativity in layout and design.

3. Data Analysis, understanding and accuracy 
How well have you explored, interpreted and represented the data? Are your findings accurate, meaningful and supported by evidence?

You don’t need to use the most advanced tools or create the most technically complex visualisation to succeed. A simple, well designed visualisation that tells a powerful story can be just as effective.

How to enter

1. Register for the competition to receive updates and access to the competition materials.

2. Explore the datasets and choose the story you want to tell (data available from 4th November).

3. Create your data visualisation using the tools and techniques that work best for your project.

4. Submit your entry by 15th January 2027 via the Project Submission Form (submissions open 25th November 2026)

5. The Data Lab team will review all entries and select a shortlist of finalists to present their visualisation to our judging panel during an online session on the 4th & 5th February 2027. Judges will score each visualisation against the judging criteria to determine the winners.

6. Shortlisted finalists will be invited to showcase their work at DataFest in Edinburgh on 12th & 13th May 2027.

Terms and Conditions of Entry

• Entries are open to members of The Data Lab Community. If you are not a member, it’s easy and free to join. Sign up here.
• The competition will close at 23:59 on Friday 15th January 2027, any entries received after this time will not be accepted.
• Groups are permitted to enter; however, any prizes will be awarded to the lead submitter. It is then up to your group how any prize is shared. Groups must be made up of individuals and cannot be an organisation.
• You must use at least one of the three competition datasets. Any additional datasets used must be appropriately cited. You are responsible for ensuring you have the appropriate permissions to use the data.
• All work submitted to The Data Lab must be your own and must not breach the rights of any third party, including intellectual property rights and data protection.
• You are permitted to use AI in your work; however, all use of AI should be declared with your submission. If you use AI, you should clearly state where and how it has been used in your work.
• By entering you give The Data Lab the non-exclusive right to publish your work and/or excerpts of it (e.g., social media, website, emails etc.). You agree that The Data Lab may, but is not required to, make your entry available on its social media, websites or other media in connection with the competition.
• The decision of The Data Lab as to who has won the competition is final.
• The Data Lab reserves the right to hold void, suspend, cancel or amend the competition where it becomes necessary to do so.

Competition Privacy Statement:

• The Data Lab will process your name and contact details for the purpose of enabling you to enter the competition and communicate about it with you.
• The Data Lab may make public your name in connection with your work and / or in relation to announcing you as the winner. This is on the basis of our legitimate interests, those interests being that we wish to publicise this competition and give credit to entrants / the winner. Please contact The Data Lab Community by email to community@thedatalab.com if you would not like your name to be announced / published.
• For further information as to how personal data is processed in connection with The Data Lab Community, please see the privacy notice: here.