Compressed Population-scale Network Netherlands 2009-2023 in MLN format

This record (and attached Documentation, see Files) describes the content and structure of “Compressed Population-scale Network Netherlands 2009-2023”, a project-generated file available via the CBS Microdata environment. The dataset consists of yearly node-aligned multilayer network (MLN) objects for the entire resident population of the Netherlands, where edges are based on the person networks published within Microdata by CBS (BURENNETWERKTAB, COLLEGANETWERKTAB, HUISHOUDENNETWERKTAB, FAMILIENETWERKTAB, KLASGENOTENNETWERKTAB), and some basic node information and layer decoding are also present alongside the edge information.
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The advantage of this data source is that compared to the original data, MLN objects are small in size, encode all different edge types (layers) between two people in the same location, and are memory-efficient if read with the corresponding mlnlib Python library. The mlnlib library also contains optimized procedures for further network analysis, sample selection and aggregation tasks, as well as exports into common network libraries or formats.
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Each yearly network is directed and unweighted consisting of edges of 32 different types or layers belonging to 5 larger layer categories (called groups in the object) corresponding to the Microdata person network tables. The MLN objects follow the intermediate format required for fast loading by the mlnlib Python library (<a href="https://pypi.org/project/mlnlib">https://pypi.org/project/mlnlib</a>), with each yearly network consisting of the following three files:
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<li>layers.csv (list of layers and layer groups), </li>
<li>nodes.csv.gz (node table with attributes, compressed CSV), and </li>
<li> edges.npz (sparse adjacency matrix using 64‑bit unsigned integers to encode layer presence using a binary encoding).</li>
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The mlnlib library which uses this as a native format can installed through ‘pip’ in a Python environment, as such, it can be requested when setting up a Microdata project.
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Please check "Notes" for the general description of the micro databases such as the definition of the population, methodological details and the quality and origin of the data. In "Notes", you can find a description of the format of the database and the list of all possible scores for the categorical variables and their significance.