Getting started with the Living in Wales Survey
1. Which dataset do I want?
The Living in Wales (LIW) survey is an ongoing survey and is supplied annually. Annual datasets are available for a period dating back to 2004. LIW survey data is also combined for three year periods.
The LIW survey includes many of the same questions each year. However, some modules are only included periodically, for example, the property survey element of the LIW survey was only carried out in 2004 and 2008. It is worthwhile to consult the documentation to determine what information was collected in a particular year before downloading data.
2. Consulting the documentation
It will not be possible to analyse the LIW survey 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:
- A technical report on the survey design and mode of data collection
- 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.
Further information about the LIW survey and results may be found on the Welsh Assembly Government web site.
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 may either:
- download the data directly as a zipped ASCII, STATA or SPSS file. This download will also include necessary documentation
- download an entire file, or a subset of your choice, into a wider range of formats via Nesstar Web
5. Analysing the data using an appropriate analysis package
Because the LIW survey datasets are micro data you will need to analyse them using an appropriate package.
You can undertake straightforward analysis, including linear regression, on the whole dataset or a subset, using Nesstar. However, it is not possible to produce derived variables or do more advanced analyses using Nesstar; to do this you will need to use a package like 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 LIW survey. To join the list click on the 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.
A list of Frequently Asked Questions for the LIW survey is also available.
7. Publishing
We need to let other researchers and data depositors know what publications are available using the LIW survey. 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.
Latest data
