Documentation Variable List  Keywords  Publications  Related Studies

Title:
Expenditure and Food Survey, 2007

Subject Categories:
Expenditure and Food Survey - Major studies
Consumer behaviour - Economics
Nutrition - Health
Family life and marriage - Social stratification and groupings
Income, property and investment - Economics

Depositor(s):
Office for National Statistics

Principal Investigator(s):
Office for National Statistics
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Sponsor(s):
Office for National Statistics
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Abstract:
Background:
A household expenditure survey has been conducted each year in the United Kingdom since 1957. From 1957 to March 2001, the Family Expenditure Survey (FES) and National Food Survey (NFS) provided information on household expenditure patterns and food consumption. In April 2001 these surveys were combined to form the Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS), which completely replaced both series. From January 2008, the EFS became known as the Living Costs and Food (LCF) module of the Integrated Household Survey (IHS). As a consequence of this change, the EFS questionnaire was altered to accommodate the insertion of a core set of questions, common to all of the separate modules which together comprise the IHS. Some of these core questions are simply questions which were previously asked in the same or a similar format on all of the IHS component surveys (including the EFS). For further information on the LCF questionnaire, see Volume A of the LCF 2008 User Guide, held with SN 6385. Further information about the LCF/EFS, including links to published reports based on the survey, may be found on the ONS Family Spending web page.

History:
The EFS was the result of more than two years' development work to bring together the FES and NFS; both survey series were well-established and important sources of information for government and the wider community, and had charted changes and patterns in spending and food consumption since the 1950s. Whilst the NFS and FES series are now finished, users should note that previous data from both series are still available from the UKDA, under GNs 33071 (NFS) and 33057 (FES). As noted above, the EFS is now known as the Living Costs and Food Survey.

Purpose of the LCF (formerly EFS)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has overall project management and financial responsibility for the LCF/EFS, while the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) sponsors the food data. As with the FES and NFS, the LCF continues to be primarily used to provide information for the Retail Prices Index, National Accounts estimates of household expenditure, analysis of the effect of taxes and benefits, and trends in nutrition. The results are multi-purpose, however, providing an invaluable supply of economic and social data. The merger of the two surveys also brings benefits for users, as a single survey on food expenditure removes the difficulties of reconciling data from two sources.

Design and methodology
The design of the LCF/EFS is based on the FES, although the use of new processing software by the data creators has resulted in a dataset which differs from the previous FES structure. The most significant change in terms of reporting expenditure, however, is the introduction of the European Standard Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP), in place of the codes used in the FES and NFS, which were unique to the two surveys. An additional level of hierarchy has been developed for the EFS to improve the mapping to the previous FES and NFS codes. The LCF/EFS was conducted on a financial year basis from 2001, but was moved from a financial to a calendar year basis from January 2006 in anticipation of the introduction of the IHS. Therefore, whilst SNs 4697, 5003, 5210, 5375 and 5688 cover 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 respectively, SN 5986 covers January-December 2006 and SN 6118 covers January-December 2007. The documentation for SN 5986 provides further details of the change in methodology.

Suppressed variables
Users should note that certain variables in the data are suppressed for reasons of confidentiality. These include geographical variables with detail below government office region and urban/rural area indicators.

Northern Ireland sample
Users of the LCF/EFS should note that, due to funding constraints, from January 2010 the Northern Ireland (NI) sample used for the LCF will be reduced to a sample proportionate to the NI population relative to the UK.

Food database:
Further information about the LCF/EFS food databases can be found on the DEFRA Family Food - Methodology web pages.



From 2007, the non-response classes and weights have been updated using 2001 Census-linked data. See documentation for further information.

For the second edition (June/July 2009), the DEFRA food database was added to the dataset, and the Incanon variable available in the dvhh file was replaced with a corrected version. Users are advised to download a new copy of the dvhh file.


Main Topics:
Household questionnaire:
The first part of the LCF/EFS questionnaire collects information about households; the majority of the questions are asked at a household-level, with the household reference person typically responding on behalf of the household as a whole. The household questionnaire includes questions on a range of subjects including family relationships, ethnicity, employment details and the ownership of household durables. It is also the source of all expenditure information not recorded in the LCF/EFS diary; principally that which concerns regular payments typically made by all households and large, infrequently purchased items such as vehicles, package holidays and home improvements.

Individual questionnaire:
The income questionnaire follows on immediately from the household questionnaire and collects the key person-level variables used on the survey. The principal components of the LCF income questionnaire are the sections covering income from employment, benefits and assets. These together form an overview of the total income received by each household, as well as each household member individually.

LCF/EFS Diary:
In addition to the two questionnaires, each individual aged 16 years and over in the household is asked to keep diary records of daily expenditure for two weeks. The raw diary data is held in a separate file, but is not made publicly available for confidentiality reasons. Therefore, users should be aware that the EFS dataset available from the UKDA includes only derived variables from the expenditure diary.

Coverage:
Dates of Fieldwork: January 2007-December 2007
The survey was moved from a financial to a calendar year basis from January 2006 in anticipation of the introduction of the CPS.
Country: United Kingdom
Spatial Units: Government Office Regions
Observation Units: Families/households; a household comprises one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) share the living accommodation (i.e. a living or sitting room), or share meals together or have common housekeeping.
Kind of Data: Alpha/numeric data; Individual (micro) level

Universe Sampled:
Location of Units of Observation:National
Population:Households in the United Kingdom surveyed during 2007.

Methodology:
Time Dimensions: Repeated cross-sectional study
From January 2006, the EFS (now LCF) moved from a financial to calendar year basis in anticipation of the IHS.
Sampling Procedures: Multi-stage stratified random sample
Due to funding constraints, from January 2010 the Northern Ireland (NI) sample used for the LCF will be reduced to a sample proportionate to the NI population relative to the UK.
Number of Units: 5,545 households in Great Britain, and 596 in Northern Ireland.
Method of Data Collection: Face-to-face interview; Diaries; Only derived variables from the diary are included in the dataset, as the raw diary data are not released to the public for confidentiality reasons.
Weighting: Weighting used. See documentation for details.

Language(s) of Written Materials:
Study Description: English
Study Documentation: English

Access:
Access Conditions: The depositor has specified that registration is required and standard conditions of use apply. The depositor may be informed about usage. See terms and conditions for further information.
Availability: ESDS Government, UK Data Archive
Contact: Help desk: govsurveys@esds.ac.uk

Date of Release:
First Edition: 26 February 2009
Latest Edition: 16 July 2009 ( 2nd Edition )

Copyright:
Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland

READ File

Download Acrobat PDF Reader