The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a combined

statistical survey Survey methodology is "the study of survey methods". As a field of applied statistics concentrating on human-research surveys, survey methodology studies the sampling of individual units from a population and associated techniques of survey da ...

households A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is impo ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

which is conducted quarterly by the

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible for th ...

(ONS). It combines results from the

Labour Force Survey Labour Force Surveys are statistical surveys conducted in a number of countries designed to capture data about the labour market. All European Union member states are required to conduct a Labour Force Survey annually. Labour Force Surveys are also ...

(LFS) and the English, Welsh and Scottish Labour Force Survey boosts which are funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), the

Department for Work and Pensions , type = Department , seal = , logo = Department for Work and Pensions logo.svg , logo_width = 166px , formed = , preceding1 = , jurisdiction = Government of the United Kingdom , headquarters = Caxton House7th Floor6–12 Tothill Stree ...

(DWP), the

Welsh Government The Welsh Government ( cy, Llywodraeth Cymru) is the Welsh devolution, devolved government of Wales. The government consists of ministers and Minister (government), deputy ministers, and also of a Counsel General for Wales, counsel general. Minist ...

and the Scottish Government.

History

APS data was first published in July 2005, containing data collected between January and December 2004. Since then, APS data has been published quarterly but with each dataset relating to a whole year. Between January 2004 and December 2005, an additional sample boost, the APS boost, was introduced but then discontinued in 2006 due to a lack of funding. In 2007, the APS and the LFS data were reweighted by the ONS, now using population estimates for 2007–2008. The key feature of the APS is its emphasis on relatively small geographic areas, providing information on selected social and socio-economic variables between the 10-yearly

censuses A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

. Some of the topics included in the APS are, for example,

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

employment Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

and

ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

Methodology and scope

The APS is published quarterly with each dataset containing 12 months of data. For each dataset, the sample size is approximately 170,000 households and 360,000 individuals.

Re-using the data

Users can obtain Annual Population Survey data from the

UK Data Service The UK Data Service is the largest digital repository for quantitative and qualitative social science and humanities research data in the United Kingdom. The organisation is funded by the UK government through the Economic and Social Research C ...

website; certain data can also be accessed at the NOMIS website. The Labour Force Survey data service provides tables using APS data.

References

External links

Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) website

NOMIS, official labour market statistics website

Office for National Statistics (ONS) website
{{Census in the United Kingdom Censuses in the United Kingdom Demographics of the United Kingdom Household surveys Office for National Statistics Publications established in 2005