The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) assesses key information processing skills and collects information on how often people undertake a range of activities at work and in everyday life. We are exploring what secondary analysis of online anonymised PIAAC data can tell us about adults’ numeracy practices. In the process we review the accessibility and user-friendliness of the data for novice researchers and practitioners in the hope of encouraging them to explore this rich resource and give a brief account of our experience of the process of accessing publicly-available PIAAC data for secondary analysis.