General Household Survey

The General Household Survey (GHS) is a survey conducted on an annual basis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and collects data about private households in Great Britain. The aim of this survey is to provide government departments and organisations with information on a range of topics concerning private households for monitoring and policy purposes.[1]

History

The GHS has been carried out continuously since 1971 except for two breaks in 1997-1998 and in 1999-2000 when the survey was reviewed and redeveloped. From 2000 onwards, the design has been changed and the survey now has two different elements: The continuous survey, which remains unchanged over a five-year period, and extra modules called "trailers".[2] This structure allows that different trailers can be included each year, depending on what information the sponsoring government departments require.

In 2005, further changes were introduced and the time period in which the survey is conducted was changed from the financial year (April to March) to the calendar year (January to December). Additionally, the design was changed to a longitudinal survey in 2005-2006 because the European Union (EU) required all member states to collect extra data from a Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC).[3]

The topics that are included in the questionnaire cover general information such as demographic information about household members, housing tenure, consumer durables including vehicle ownership and migration. The individual questionnaires, completed by all adults over 16 years of age resident in a household, also include issues such as employment, pensions, education, health, smoking and drinking, family information and income.

The GHS is soon to be incorporated into the Integrated Household Survey (IHS) which also includes the Labour Force Survey, the Living Costs and Food Survey, the Opinions (Omnibus) Survey and the English Housing Survey.[4]

Methodology and scope

The GHS is a repeated cross-sectional study, conducted annually, which uses a sample of 9,731 households in the 2006 survey. The data is primarily collected by face-to-face interviews as well as telephone interviews.

Survey results

The results of the 2007 GHS as well as additional information concerning the survey can be found on the ONS website.

Re-using the data

Users can obtain GHS data from the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) website.

References

  1. ↑ Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) GHS catalogue record entry, retrieved 8 September 2009
  2. ↑ National Statistics website, "Living in Britain 2001", About the General Household Survey, retrieved 8 September 2009
  3. ↑ ESDS Government, GHS webpages, retrieved 14 September 2009
  4. ↑ ESDS Government, IHS webpages, retrieved 14 September 2009

External links