Introduction to British data for Research on Housing and the Local Environment

Sarah King-Hele & Jo Wathan ESDS Government

• Focus on some key individual or household level sample datasets gathered by government for policy making purposes – Introduce the data and its features &

uses – How to access data, resources and

support – Future developments

This section focuses on

• Continuous surveys • Census samples

• Other sources include;

– longitudinal studies – census tables – one off studies

Why should you want to know about the data?

Because the data are... • Very cost effective: data free of charge to

not for profit researchers • Saves time: no need to conduct survey • Access to high quality, well documented

data • Can provide nationally representative

data - allows generalisation to population • Allows historical and geographical

comparisons to be made • ESRC funded data support services

“Microdata”? Individual cases

are maintained – each record contains a wide range of characteristics

What are they like?

• Sample data

• Snapshot data (“cross-sectional”)

• Long-running series

• Large

• Flexible

Typically...

Government Surveys • Conducted by:

– Office for National Statistics (ONS)

– NatCen – or similar...

• Collected face to face – CAPI (and CASI)

• Household Surveys – Typically exclude communal

establishments – May include one, all or some

residents

• Often narrow but deep in coverage

Key data resources (1)

Housing • English Housing Survey (EHS)/Survey of

English Housing (SEH)/English Housing Condition Survey (EHCS)

• National Survey for Wales (NSW)/Living in Wales (LIW)

• Similar surveys for Scotland and Northern Ireland

• Living Costs and Food Survey: detailed information about many costs including housing

Key data resources (2)

The local environment • Citizenship Survey: opinions and feelings

about the community, satisfaction etc. • Place Survey: satisfaction with and

knowledge about local services etc. • British Crime Survey: views about the

local area, particularly about crime and anti-social behaviour

• Scottish Crime and Justice Survey • Some of the housing surveys also ask

about the local environment

From the table of Government surveys

Which datasets might be most suitable for:

• Following trends in market valuations of types of property in England 2002-2008?

• Examining materials used in housing in Scotland?

• Looking at desirable area characteristics within unitary authorities in England?

• Examining fear of crime in Scotland from 2004?

English Housing Survey • Started in 2008 and replaced:

– Survey of English Housing (1993-2008) – English House Condition Survey (1986, 1996

and 2002-2008) • Topics: Type of accommodation, housing

costs; dwelling type and age, floor area, heating and insulation etc

• Data collection: Initial interview, then follow-up inspection of house and desk-based market valuation of a sub-sample

• Two data sets: – Household: ~17,000 households – Housing Stock: ~16,000 dwellings, ~21,000

households • Geography: Government Office Regions

National Survey for Wales

• Pilot in 2009-2010 – Replaced the Living in Wales series (2004-

2008)

• Topics: include heating, insulation, tenure/area features, use and satisfaction with local services

• Interviews: Face-to-face interviews of randomly selected households in Wales

• Sample: – Approx 4,500 households and 6,400

individuals

• Geography: range including Welsh Assembly/Parliamentary Constituencies

Citizenship Survey

• Covers: England and Wales • Started in 2007-2008 but there was a Home

Office Citizenship Survey in 2001, 2003 and 2005 with a different design

• Topics: opinions about community, community cohesion, local facilities as well as about identity, race and religious prejudice etc.

• Sample: – 2009-2010: 16,140 people interviewed age 16 years+ – Including an ethnic boost of 5,582

• Geography: Government Office Region

Place Survey

• Covers: England • Run in 2008 only (cancelled due to cuts) • Topics: include: desirable area

characteristics, knowledge of and satisfaction with local services, safety, littering, anti-social behaviour etc.

• Sample: 518,772 adults over 18 • Geography: range including Unitary

Authorities and Metropolitan Counties

Not the only data!

• Other ESDS Government surveys contain basic or spasmodic data on this theme. – ONS Opinions (formerly Omnibus)

• e.g. access to shops (1993) • second homes (1990-1998, 2008)

– Young People’s Social Attitudes Survey (1994, 1998 and 2003) • Young people aged 12-19 • Attitudes towards local area

– British Social Attitudes (1983-) – e.g. attitudes to housing development,

vandalism in the area, social renting etc – And many more…

As well as...

• International data – European Quality of Life Survey

• Qualitative data – Ethnic Relations on West Midland Housing

Estates, 1983-1984

• and longitudinal data (of which more later)

Also Census microdata

• Cross sectional data called Samples of Anonymised Records – much larger samples – local authority in accessible data

• Random samples of data from the census output database

• Lot of work done to make the data OK to release without risk of disclosure

Census of population

• Self completion • Collected every 10 years • Slower to release • Microdata for 2011 is expected • Content is broad not deep

I-spy census contents • Have central heating? • Household access to car • Health problems suffering from • Location 1 year ago • Who is resident? • Individual Employment • Highest qualifications • Ethnicity • Religion • Passports held • Income

Trading off detail: 2001 files

lots

lots

geog

raph

y

socio-economic detail

safe data

Trading off detail: 2001 files

lots

lots none

geog

raph

y

socio-economic detail

Trading off detail

lots

lots none

geog

raph

y

socio-economic detail

Trading off detail

lots

lots none

geog

raph

y

socio-economic detail

approved researcher

Trading off detail

lots

lots none

geog

raph

y

socio-economic detail

Trading off detail

lots

lots none

geog

raph

y

socio-economic detail

safe setting

2001: Which file? What do you want?

Area tables

Samples of Anonymised Records Longi-tudinal Studies Individ-

ual licenced EUL

Small Area Micro-data

Special licence household SAR

Individ-ual CAM

House- hold CAM

Do you want smaller than local authority geography?

- -

Local authority

Individual flexibility

Individual detail Less V.G Good V.G Excel-lent

Excel-lent

Excel-lent

Household members linked to each other

Ability to follow individual over time

What you can do with the data – practical uses and examples

• Look at change over time • Look at the relationship between housing/local

environment and other demographic variables • Use the flexibility of the data to look at alternative

definitions

• where geography is available you can produce maps

Graph: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/03/23153136/4

Using successive cross-sectional data over

time

Pros… • Reasonable amount of

comparability • Data is representative

at each time point • Good at looking at

impacts on groups (not individuals)

• Can you pool years/quarters to look at periods?

Cons… • Limits to continuity in

the data (e.g. ethnicity, Occupational classifications)

• Cannot establish individual change

Look at the relationship between housing/local environment and other

demographic variables

• Can answer questions like: Are people with lower levels of

education more likely to live in over-crowded housing?

Or, does over-crowding vary depending on: – the age of the head of the household? – whether people own their property or not? – whether the head of household is a single parent

or not? – whether they live in an urban or rural area? – which part of the UK they live in?

What is rent paid? • Household or individual level? • Is it just rent paid? Or does it include services/charges? • Before or after housing benefit? • Rent usually paid, or actually paid last month? • In usual residence or are there other locations? • What about non paying household members -

equivalise? • What about rent-free accomodation? • What about those who own accomodation – omit, count

as zero or do something else?

Using the flexibility of the data to look at alternative definitions

Mapping SAR data

Percentage of residents who are working males 21-65 with a professional qualification

Source: Small Area Microdata (2001)

Limitations

• Cannot follow individuals over time • The information you want to answer a

research question may not be available • Small geography not available on End User

Licence survey files – Region lowest level on most data – Some lower level geography in Special Licence

files – there is however a SAR file – Small area

microdata

• Not public data – Must register with ESDS/Census.ac.uk

SARs not the only census microdata

• Longitudinal studies follow individuals across censuses

• There are now 3 longitudinal studies – ONS Longitudinal Study (E&W) c. 1% – Scottish Longitudinal Study c. 5% – Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study c. 28%

• Links to all 3 from www.census.ac.uk

source: http://celsius.census.ac.uk/what.html

The ONS Longitudinal Study

• Initial sample drawn from 1971 Census. • Selected if birthday falls on one of four days in each year (‘LS

birth dates’). • Approximately 1% sample of population of England and Wales

extracted. • Data for the whole household available for each sample

member. • Maintained through addition of immigrations and new births with

LS birth dates. • Individuals linked from one census to another • Data from censuses and vital registration systems. • Losses to sample through deaths and out-migrations (though all

records are retained in the database).

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011

Census

Birth of

Child

Birth of

Twins Census Death of Spouse Census Cancer Death

Person Included from 1971 Census

Census

source: http://celsius.census.ac.uk/what.html

Accessing

• Access • Resources • Practical

Accessing Data through the ESDS/Census programme

• All users can access study descriptions, online documentation, including questionnaires, free of charge without registering with ESDS

• In order to access the datasets you need to register with ESDS – Register online using your UK Federation username and

password – Simple online form, takes about 10 minutes – You need to register a usage of the data as part of this

process – Non-commercial users: free of charge – Commercial users: £500 Charge for per study and will need

to apply for a UK Federation username and password for surveys

– Commercial users SARs: contact ccsr.ac.uk/sars – You need to agree to the End User Licence when you register

What data is available for my topic?

• Theme materials – ESDS Government theme guide – ESDS theme pages

• ESDS Data Catalogue

• Survey Question Bank (Survey Resources

Network) • http://surveynet.ac.uk/sqb/ • http://surveynet.ac.uk/srn/introduction.asp

Finding out about the data

Unless... • you can track your variable back to the

question(s) asked on the questionnaire, • know who the questions were asked of • and what was done with the raw data to

turn it into the final data • and what you must do to be able to use it

• You don’t understand the data

!

Documentation

• Questionnaires • Codebooks • Information about derived variables • Technical information on sampling,

weighting etc. • next few pages need to be changed to an

appropriate survey

Links

• ESDS • http://www.esds.ac.uk/government/ehs/datasets/

Help and Support

• ESDS Government – www.esds.ac.uk/government – govsurveys@esds.ac.uk

• SARs • http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/sars • http://www.census.ac.uk • sars-helpdesk@ccsr.ac.uk