Getting started with the Family Expenditure Survey
1. Which dataset do I want?
There are a number of Family Expenditure
Survey (FES) datasets available, each of which represents
annual data. Data are available for the periods 1961-1963 and 1968-2000. In
2001 the FES was replaced by the Expenditure and Food Survey.
2. Consulting the documentation
It will not be possible to analyse
the FES without reference to the documentation. Documentation is available for
viewing before downloading/ordering the data, however you will also obtain the
documentation if you download the data as a zipped file. The documentation contains:
o information about which variables
are available
o information about how the data is coded
o information about which files to use
o the survey questionnaires
The survey questionnaires can also
be obtained on the Survey Question
Bank web site, which provides readily searchable versions of questionnaires
for all major surveys used by secondary analysts.
3. Registering for the data
Once you have decided which data to
use for your project you will need to register
with ESDS to obtain the data. Information about obtaining data can be found
on the ESDS web site.
Registered users can download/order a large and increasing number of datasets
direct (usually in SPSS, STATA or tab-delimited formats)
via its online catalogue record and via the download/order section of the Major
Studies web pages.
4. Downloading the data
Once registered you can download data
from the download pages directly as a zipped ASCII, STATA or SPSS file. This
download will also include necessary documentation.
5. Analysing the data using an appropriate analysis package
Because the FES datasets are microdata
you will need to analyse them using an appropriate package such as SPSS, STATA
or SAS.
If you are unfamiliar with these packages
you can find a STATA
guide on the ESDS Government pages, which uses examples from the Labour
Force Survey. A guide to SPSS is also available, based on the HSE 2002 teaching
dataset. Several organisations offer introductory SPSS and STATA courses. CCSR
at the University of Manchester offers one-day courses although there is a charge.
Details of these courses can be obtained through the CCSR
Short Course Pages.
6. Communicating with other users
and obtaining support
The ESDS-govsurveys
JISCmail list is an email list you can join to hear about events and other
news relating to the large-scale government list, including the FES. To join
the list click on the above link to the ESDS-govsurveys list web page or email
listserv@jiscmail.ac.uk with the following message:
subscribe esds-govsurveys firstname
secondname
If you hit a problem with the data
while doing your work feel free to contact us. Queries relating to the large-scale
government datasets should be sent to:
govsurveys@esds.ac.uk
Alternatively you can telephone +44
(0) 161 275 1980.
If the helpdesk team cannot find the answer to your query in the survey documentation they will contact ONS. However, please note that the FES has been replaced by the Expenditure and Food Survey so historic queries about the FES are difficult for ONS to answer. ONS cannot guarantee that they will be of any help or provide any further information where detailed documentation does not exist for the dataset. Also, the recent relocation of the survey team from London to Newport means that delays in responding to Family Expenditure Survey queries are likely to persist in the short term.
A list of Frequently Asked Questions for the Family Expenditure Survey is also available.
7. Publishing
We need to let other researchers and
data depositors know what publications are available using the FES. If you publish
using the data, please contact us at govsurveys@esds.ac.uk and give us details
of your publication. If you would be happy for us to publish something on our
web site, for example the research
story on smoking, please let us know.
Data collectors and distributors should
be acknowledged in publications.
