Guide to the Citizenship Survey

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An ESDS guide

Guide to the Citizenship Survey

The Citizenship Survey (HOCS) is a biennial social survey which covers the areas of community cohesion, race and faith, volunteering and civil renewal. The HOCS survey contributes to the Home Office's stated aim to ensure that "citizens, communities and the voluntary sector are more fully engaged in tackling social problems and there is more equality of opportunity and respect for people of all races and religions" (Public Service Agreement 8). The HOCS series is also used by other government departments and external stakeholders to help inform their work around the issues covered in the survey.

Until January 2007, the series was known as the Home Office Citizenship Survey, but is now simply the Citizenship Survey, although the 'HOCS' acronym is still in use. The survey has also been previously known as the People, Family and Communities Survey.

Methodology

The main HOCS questionnaire covers:

social networks
respondents' feelings about their commmunities, including community cohesion
trust and influence
volunteering
civil renewal
race and religious prejudice and discrimination
rights and responsibilities
demographic and geodemographic information

Established questions and classifications are used where appropriate:

demographic questions are mostly taken from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) harmonised question booklets
questions on family relationships are adapted from the General Household Survey (GHS) family relationship grid (the GHS is held under GN 33090)
the hierarchy of community participation was adapted from the method used in the National Survey of Voluntary Activity, 1997 (held under SN 3931)

The sample for HOCS 2001 and 2005 consisted of two components: a general population (core) sample of people in England and Wales and a boost sample of respondents from ethnic minority groups, selected in wards where more than 1% of the population was from a minority ethnic group. In addition to the usual ethnic boost sample, HOCS 2003 also included boost samples of children and young people. The children's questionnaire comprised three modules, on neighbourhood and school, including feelings of safety and enjoyment; active communities and social capital, including help given within family networks and social participation; and 'right' and 'wrong', including perceptions of these concepts. The young people's questionnaire was more detailed, and as well as covering the same topics as the children's questionnaire, also included a module on perceptions of race, race equality, prejudice and religion.

HOCS resources

ESDS hold the three Citizenship Surveys conducted so far:

All files are available in SPSS, Stata and tab-delimited text format. A significance 'ready reckoner' file is available in Excel format for the 2001 and 2003 HOCS surveys, which can be used to test for statistical significance.

Users should also see:

National Centre for Social Research web pages:
www.natcen.ac.uk/study/offending-crime--justice
Survey Question Bank web pages (note that HOCS is referenced there as the People, Family and Communities Survey):
surveynet.ac.uk/sqb/surveys/citizenship.asp

Related datasets held by ESDS

British Crime Survey (BCS):

Although the main focus of the BCS is on crime victimisation, it covers some of the same topics as HOCS, such as respondents' attitudes to their neighbourhood, anti-social behaviour problems in the local area, community crime prevention and participation in Neighbourhood Watch schemes and other voluntary groups.

User documentation