User:Louiseskilton/Living Costs and Food Survey

Living Costs and Food Survey

“The Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF) is a survey carried out on a calendar year basis, collecting information on expenditure of goods and services for private households in the UK. Although the survey is primarily designed to collect expenditure information, the survey also gathers information about the income of household members. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has overall project management and financial responsibility for the LCF while the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) sponsors the specialist food data.” .

History
“The Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS) was renamed as the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF) in 2008 when it became a module of the Integrated Household Survey (IHS). The EFS was the result of the amalgamation of the Family Expenditure and National Food Surveys (FES and NFS). Both surveys were well established and important sources of information for government and the wider community, charting changes and patterns in Britain’s spending and food consumption since the 1950s.”.

Scope
Around 6,000 households in Great Britain take part in the LCF survey. The fieldwork is undertaken by the Office for National Statistics and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

Methodology
“Each individual aged 16 and over in the household visited is asked to keep diary records of daily expenditure for two weeks. Information about regular expenditure, such as rent and mortgage payments, is obtained from a household interview along with retrospective information on certain large, infrequent expenditures such as those on vehicles. Since 1998–99 the results have also included information from simplified diaries kept by children aged between 7 and 15. The survey is continuous, interviews being spread evenly over the year to ensure that seasonal effects are covered. Since 1998–99 the survey has been weighted to reduce the effect of non-response bias and produce population totals and means. The weights are produced in two stages. First, the data are weighted to compensate for non-response (sample-based weighting). Second, the sample distribution is weighted so that it matches the population distribution in terms of region, age group and sex (population-based weighting).”.

Survey results
“The annual family spending publication gives a broad overview of the results of the survey, and provides more detailed information about some aspects of expenditure”.

Re-using the data
Anonymised microdata from the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF), the Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS) and the Family Expenditure Survey (FES) are available from the United Kingdom Data Archive. Details on access arrangements and associated costs can be found at the ukdata archive