Living Costs and Food
Survey
Giles Horsfield
Office for National Statistics
UK
Contents
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Introduction
Key Results of 2009 survey
Data collection: interview and diary
Developments: looking ahead
Living Costs and Food Survey
• Sample of around 6,000 households
• Interview plus two-week diary of
expenditure
• Response (interview plus diary) = 51%
– decline in response
– similar trend across social surveys
Sample design
• Stratified by:
– region
– ownership of cars
– socio-economic group head of household
• Clustered: post code sectors are PSUs
Interview: overview
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Expenditure
Income
Ownership of consumer durables
Demographics
• Also part of Integrated Household Survey
(IHS)
Uses of Survey
• Retail Price Index
• Consumer price indices
• Spending patterns of population
• Household expenditure for GDP
• Effect of taxes and benefits
• Food consumption and nutrition
Headline figure 2009
• Average household weekly expenditure was
£455 (£471 in 2008)
• First drop since current methods
implemented in 2001-02
Average weekly expenditure on main
commodities and services 2009
Transport
58
Recreation and culture
58
57
Housing, fuel and power
52
Food and non-alcoholic drinks
38
Restaurants and hotels
35
Miscellaneous goods and services
28
Household goods and services
21
Clothing and footwear
Communication
12
Alcoholic drinks, tobacco and narcotics
11
7
Education
Health
0.00
5
20.00
40.00
Expenditure (£)
Source: Living Costs and Food Survey, Office for National Statistics
60.00
Changes over time (percentage of total
expenditure)
Other expenditure items
Transport
Recreation and culture
Housing, fuel and power
Food and non-alcoholic drinks
Restaurants and hotels
2001/02
Miscellaneous goods and services
2009
Household goods and services
Clothing and footwear
Communication
Alcoholic drinks, tobacco and narcotics
Education
Health
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 16.0 18.0
Percentage of total expenditure
Housing-related costs (renters and
mortgage holders)
• £71 a week - average net rent paid by renters
– London £111
– North East £37
• £133 a week - average mortgage payment by mortgage
holders
– London £203
– Scotland £112
Households with…
2009
10 0
La ndline
t e le pho ne
90
80
M o bile pho ne
Percent
70
S a t e llit e , digit a l
o r c a ble
re c e iv e r
H o me
c o m put e r
60
50
40
30
Int e rne t
c o nne c t io n
20
10
0
200001
200102
200203
200304
200405
200506
2006
2007
2008
2009
Source: Living Costs and Food Survey, Office for National Statistics
Ownership by income decile 2009
Percent
100
90
80
70
60
Lowest
Highest
50
40
30
20
10
0
Telephone
Mobile phone
Satellite,
digital, cable
Source: Living Costs and Food Survey, Office for National Statistics
Home
computer
Internet
connection
Interview: expenditure
• Expenditure on:
–
–
–
–
regular payments, eg. utility bills
insurance
licences
season tickets
• Large purchases (retrospective). Specified
items for 3-12 months:
– motor vehicles
– carpets; furniture; holidays; some housing
• Other purchases over £5,000 in last 3 months
Diary: overview
• Two weeks
• All adults (essential that Main Diary Keeper
completes diary)
• Children aged 7-15 complete simplified diary
• Diary designed to capture a high level of
detail on food and drink purchases, including
weights and measures
Encouraging respondents
• Incentive: £10 per adult; £5 per child, for
completed diaries
• Information given about uses of survey
– phone and internet links
– Advance letter and leaflet
• Interviewers well briefed on importance of
survey
Easing respondent burden
• Till receipts attached to diary
• Mini diary issued for recording purchases
while eating out etc
• Support from interviewers in completing diary,
annotating receipts etc
• Questionnaire content reviewed and
streamlined
Diary: interviewers role
• Brief respondents
• Return to check progress during diary period
• Check at end of diary period, and annotate
diary and receipts where necessary
• Where information is missing (eg weights and
measures) return to retailers to check
• Calling patterns optimised
Diary: HQ processing
• Team of coders transfer data from paper
diaries to electronic format (Blaise)
• Check data quality: queries returned to
interviewers where necessary;
• Missing data imputed: obtained via web
searches and other sources
• Questionnaire and diary data combined
Further developments
• Improved efficiency in collecting “missing”
weights and measures; increased use of the
internet
• Consideration given to increased use of
technology in data collection (scanners)
• Questionnaire review
• Pilot of increased incentive to improve
response