The UK public are largely unaware of data centres’ critical role in society, with more than half of consumers admitting they do not know what a data centre is or what they are for, according to fresh research from data centre service provider Telehouse.

In a survey of over 2,000 UK adults, more than half (51%) said they had never heard of data centres before, while 67% didn’t know what they are for, highlighting a significant knowledge gap about how digital services operate. 

While nearly half (48%) of respondents believed data centres positively impact the technology and services they use at home and work, such as video streaming and online shopping, 43% were unaware of the vast number of people, applications, and data supported by these facilities.

The knowledge gap is significant given that the UK Government recently categorised data centres as critical national infrastructure, which was in part driven by the increasing reliance on digital services for essential functions around the country. 

Telehouse said that there is a mixed perception in the UK about the importance of datacentres to our daily lives, for example 59% see data centres as critical to enabling remote work, with a further 19% unsure how these facilities support such activities, and 15% considering them not very critical or not critical at all to remote working. 

Mark Pestridge, executive vice-president and general manager at Telehouse Europe, said: “We realise there’s a significant knowledge gap regarding data centres and their impact on digital lives … [and] we hope to educate people about the critical work done in data centres and inspire our future generations to consider careers in this field.”

The low public awareness surrounding data centres in the UK is at odds with the stratospheric growth within the industry itself, with a report from techUK finding that data centres are currently contributing £4.7 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) annually to the UK economy, raised £640 million in tax revenue, and created more than 43,500 jobs.

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That same report estimates the construction and operation of data centres will contribute an additional £44 billion in GVA between 2025 and 2035, but highlighted the challenges facing the industry in attracting skilled workers, a problem exacerbated by a lack of public knowledge about data centres themselves.

Although the general public might not see the need for data centres, tech firms are pushing for more to be built in the UK. Last week, London-based AI hyperscaler Nscale announced plans to invest more than £2 billion in the UK’s data centre industry over the next three years, while back in October US firms CyrusOne, ServiceNow, Cloud HQ and CoreWeave unveiled plans to construct data centre infrastructure worth a total of £6.3 billion in the UK.