Family Expenditure Survey

Key facts

Survey coverage:	United Kingdom
Set Sample size:	7,100 (1999/2000)
Full response from:	63% (1999/2000)
Type of survey:	Face-to-face interview + diary

Why is the survey carried out?

The Family Expenditure Survey (FES) is a continuous survey of household expenditure and income which ran from 1957 to March 2001. From April 2001 onwards the data continues to be collected in the Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS), formed by combining the FES with the National Food Survey (NFS). The primary use of the FES has been to provide information about spending patterns for the Retail Price Index, although over the years the uses extended. The FES has fed into estimates of consumers' expenditure in the National Accounts, is used for tax benefit modelling and is an important source of economic and social data for government and other research agencies. The EFS will continue to meet these needs and will also provides information on food consumption and nutrition.

The FES is commissioned by the Social Survey Division (SSD) of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on behalf of a number of customers, principally other divisions within ONS. SSD is responsible for the survey design and carries out fieldwork in Great Britain, while the Central Survey Unit of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency undertakes the fieldwork in Northern Ireland. SSD carries out the coding and editing of all the data, quality control, supply to customers and reporting.

How is the survey done?

Information for the FES is collected from people living in private households. The survey is made up of:

• a comprehensive household questionnaire which asks about regular household bills and expenditure on major but infrequent purchases;
• an individual questionnaire for each adult (aged 16 or over) which asks detailed questions about their income;
• a diary of all personal expenditure kept by each adult for two weeks;
• a simplified diary kept by children aged 7 to 15 years, also kept for two weeks.

The set sample for the FES in Great Britain is 11,400 addresses a year which are selected from the Postcode Address File (a comprehensive list of all delivery points - postboxes). About 11% of the addresses prove to be ineligible because they are for institutions and businesses rather than private households. In Northern Ireland addresses are selected from the Rating Valuation List.

Data for the FES is collected using Computer Assisted Interviewing and paper diary questionnaires.

Response to the survey

In 1999-2000 full response was achieved from 63% of households that were eligible for the survey. The FES operates strict response rules - households count as responding only if:

• the household expenditure questionnaire is complete; and
• all adults complete an income questionnaire (without refusing any item of information) and keep a two-week diary of all their expenditure.

The Expenditure and Food Survey

A major development has been the merger of the FES with the National Food Survey (NFS) commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The new survey, the Expenditure and Food Survey, started in April 2001. It was announced by ONS and DEFRA in December 2000 following completion of a successful programme of development and piloting. This included a review of the questionnaire and diary content, a redesign of the diaries, a review of the response rules, (which included qualitative work and the Question Testing Unit) work on imputation (carried out by Social Survey Methodology Unit) and a new processing system. A small-scale pilot was carried out during the autumn of 1999 and a large scale pilot in February and March 2000. Results from this large-scale pilot met the criteria for success that had been agreed with users. They related to response rate, accuracy and completeness of results, and to satisfactory collection of the extra food detail and quantities previously collected in the NFS.

New coding for goods and services: COICOP

The other major change from April 2001 has been the use of a new set of codes for goods and services in place of the codes used in the FES, which were unique to the UK. The new frame is the European standard Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose, COICOP. An additional level of hierarchy has been developed to improve the mapping to the previous FES codes.

Where can the results be found?

The results of the survey are published annually by ONS in 'Family Spending'.

For more information about the Family Expenditure Survey or other surveys we carry out contact:
SSD Project Support Branch Tel: +44 (0)20 7533 5500 or e-mail: ssdpsb@ons.gov.uk

This page last revised: Monday, 29 October 2001