The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

Scotland's People: results from the 2001/2002 Scottish Household Survey
Volume 8: Technical Report

Driving and transport

In relation to driving and transport, the survey results also look broadly in line with what one might expect from other sources such as the National Travel Survey, and the differences which exist are, again, comfortably within the confidence intervals associated with the two surveys. Mode of travel comparisons with other sources are less conclusive, though methodological or classification differences may be playing a part here.

Table 4-10 Comparison of key variables relating to driving and transport

* SHS weighted by number of adults and local authority size
** SHS weighted by local authority size only
*** SHS weighted by number of adults, local authority size and number of children in household

Ethnicity

Question HA9 and its supporting 'Showcard C' were changed in the 2001 and 2002 surveys with the aim of bringing the question into line with the question on ethnicity in the 2001 Census. Unfortunately, in making the change, the full wording of the Census questions was not incorporated into the SHS question - see detailed table below. As a consequence, while the Census clearly groups cultural categories within racial groupings, the SHS showcard does not make such clear distinctions. As a consequence, in the SHS some non-white respondents may have classified themselves within the Scottish/ British groupings and some white respondents may have classified themselves outside these categories.

Table 4-11 Comparison of ethnicity questions and responses

While Table 4-11 shows that overall, the pattern of responses to SHS is very similar to the proportions by ethnic group recorded in the 2001 Census, nevertheless, because of the uncertainty of interpretation of responses to the SHS questions, it would not be appropriate to use this information for analysis by broad racial categories such as a 'White/ non-white' classification. Similarly, we have excluded summary ethnic classification information from the reduced datasets for 2001 and 2002 supplied to the ESRC Data Archive.

Because of its full coverage and unambiguous questions, the Census is clearly the preferred source for analysis of the characteristics of the Scottish population by ethnic group for this period.

From 2003 the SHS ethnicity question now exactly matches the Census question.

Urban/rural classification

Analysis of the Scottish Household Survey makes extensive use of the Scottish Executive's classification of areas into different degrees of urbanity and rurality. This classifies settlements according to their size and for settlements with a population of less that 10,000, their proximity to a settlement with a population of more than 10,000. A full description of the urban/rural classification is given in the Glossary to the survey Annual Report.

Comparison of the households at which SHS interviews were achieved and the classification of all Scottish households shows that there is a good match between the two. Table 4-12 compares the proportion of households in each local authority in each type of area.

Table 4-12 Comparison of urban/rural classification Scotland (bold) and SHS 2001/2002 (plain text)

Rows may not always add to 100% because of rounding.

Economic activity

The one area where the results of the SHS indicate significant differences from other sources is in relation to indicators of economic activity. As the following table shows, the most recent results from the Labour Force Survey suggest that the SHS may be under-representing people in employment, and over-representing the economically inactive. It should be emphasised, however, that the information from the SHS shown here is based on the respondent's own classification of their economic activity (collected at the start of the interview), rather than on the full International Labour Organisation definition, which is the basis for official estimates of unemployment. The SHS is not an official source of statistics on employment.

Table 4-13 Comparison of economic activity variables among adults of working age

* weighted by number of adults and local authority size

Figures in this table have been calculated using all working age people as the denominator, headline unemployment statistics are not calculated on this basis

Health

In terms of health, the percentage of individuals (aged 16 or over) stating that over the last twelve months their health has on the whole been 'good' was 63% in the 2001 Census but only 55% in the 2001 SHS. The percentage of individuals (aged 16 or over) stating that they have any long-term illness, health problem or disability which limits their daily activities or the work they can do was 24% in the 2001 Census compared to 20% in the 2001 SHS.

Comparisons of other variables have also made between data from the 2001 Census and the SHS and these will be published separately.

4.6 Summary of weights required

The following table summarises the weighting factors which are intrinsic to the survey design and which serve to adjust for unequal probabilities of selection and differences in response rates.

Where variables of different types are analysed together, the weights should be applied as follows.

• Household variables and random adult variables use the individual weight
• Random adult variables and travel diary variables use the travel diary weight
• Household variables and travel diary variables use the travel diary weight

As the weighted profile of the sample for 2001/2002 appears to match other sources relatively closely on a number of key variables, there has been no additional post-survey weighting at present although the options for further weighting will be considered once the results of ONS's analysis of non-response to the SHS are available.

« Previous | Contents | Next »