Family Expenditure Survey
The UK Family Expenditure Survey (FES)
is a continuous survey of household expenditure and income which has been in
existence since 1957. Annual samples of around 10,000 households (about 1 in
2000 of all United Kingdom households) are selected each year. Approximately
60 percent of these households co-operate by providing information about the
household, household and personal incomes and certain payments that recur regularly
(e.g. rent, gas and electricity bills, telephone accounts, insurances, season
tickets and hire purchase payments) and in maintaining a detailed expenditure
record for 14 consecutive days. The main purpose of the survey is to provide
the weights for the United Kingdom Retail Price Index (RPI). The survey is also
a cost efficient way of collecting a variety of related data that the government
departments require to correlate with income and expenditure at the household,
tax unit and person levels. Data is held from 1961 onwards, although
the data for the years 1964-1967, however, are currently in an inaccessible
format.
From 2001, the FES and the National Food Survey (NFS) have been combined and
replaced by a new survey, the 'Expenditure and Food Survey' (EFS). There has
previously been considerable overlap between the FES and NFS, with both surveys
asking respondents to keep a diary of expenditure. The NFS, sponsored by the
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) covers only food
expenditure but in more detail than the FES. The decision to go ahead with the
new survey followed successful piloting. Thus, the 2000-2001 survey is the final
FES in its current format. The design of the new EFS is based on the current
FES and the information currently provided by the FES will continue to be provided
by the new survey: Expenditure and Food Survey.
The National Statistics web site contains some detailed information about the survey.
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