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  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">IJPDS</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title>International Journal of Population Data Science</journal-title>
        <abbrev-journal-title>IJPDS</abbrev-journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <issn pub-type="epub">2399-4908</issn>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>Swansea University</publisher-name>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.23889/ijpds.v7i2.1773</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">7:03:002</article-id>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Associations of Congenital Heart Disease with Deprivation Index by Rural-Urban Maternal Residence: A Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study in Ontario, Canada</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Early</surname>
            <given-names initials="E">Erin</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="affil-1">1</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Miller</surname>
            <given-names initials="S">Sarah</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="affil-2">2</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Dunne</surname>
            <given-names initials="L">Laura</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="affil-2">2</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Moriarty</surname>
            <given-names initials="J">John</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="affil-2">2</xref>
        </contrib>
      </contrib-group>
      <aff id="affil-1"><label>1</label>
        <institution>UCL</institution>
      </aff>
      <aff id="affil-2"><label>2</label>
        <institution>QUB</institution>
      </aff>
      <pub-date date-type="pub" publication-format="electronic"><day></day><month>09</month><year>2017</year></pub-date>
      <pub-date date-type="collection" publication-format="electronic"><year>2022</year></pub-date>
      <volume>7</volume>
      <issue>3</issue>
      <elocation-id>1773</elocation-id>
      <permissions>
        <license license-type="open-access" xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/">
          <license-p>This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <self-uri xlink:href="https://ijpds.org/article/view/1772">This article is available from the IJPDS website at: https://ijpds.org/article/view/1772</self-uri>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
  <body>
    <p>Educational attainment disparities across social groups remain at the forefront of contemporary UK society. Despite this, Northern Ireland reflects a somewhat different context to the rest of the UK due to its transition to a post-conflict society and its dually selective education system (academically and religiously). In Northern Ireland, post-primary (GCSE) attainment differences are often reported according to gender, religious affiliation and socio-economic background. However, due to the lack of available education data that encompasses a wide range of pupil- and school-level factors, discourse informed by the statistical testing of such factors has been limited. This study aims to overcome this current gap by examining the effects of socio-demographics, namely gender, religious affiliation and socio-economic background (through eight measures), and school-level factors on GCSE attainment, using the first linked administrative dataset for education in Northern Ireland. The data combined the household Census (2011) with the School Census (2010-2014) and School Leavers Survey (2010-2014) for the first time in Northern Ireland. To this end, this paper discusses data analytics of the study including data linkage, cohort size, constructed GCSE attainment measures, socio-demographic measures and school-level factors. The multilevel modelling (including interaction models) construction, execution and results will also be discussed. The paper concludes with a reflection upon whether the results of this analysis support existing literature in the Northern Ireland context and wider UK GCSE attainment trends.</p>
  </body>
</article>