These data are for macroinvertebrate taxonomy and abundance of Welsh upland rivers. The sampling sites were located in small and medium catchments across Wales. Sampling took place in either spring 2013 for sites in the Wye catchment or during 2012 for the other catchments. At each sampling point, 2-minute kick-samples were taken from river riffles to represent macroinvertebrate composition. Samples were preserved in industrial methylated spirit on site. Samples were then sorted and identified in the laboratory. The main goal of this survey was to characterise a gradient of aquatic biodiversity associated with different environmental settings for example land-use intensify and recovery from acidification. Dr Isabelle Durance was the responsible of organising the surveys, Dr Hugh Feeley was in charge of collecting, processing and sorting the invertebrate samples. Kath Layer was commissioned by Cardiff University for the identification. The work was carried out under Diversity in Upland Rivers for Ecosystem Service Sustainability (DURESS) project (Grant reference NERC NE/J014818/1). DURESS was a project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability (BESS) programme. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/8f7b2269-73b1-449f-8590-e36c7c850913