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SHS Lite - User Guide: A guide to using the Scottish Household Survey simplified dataset

6. Analyzing the Data

6.1 Using Tables

When data from the SHS is reported by the Scottish Executive, a number of reporting conventions are followed to make the analysis clear and to avoid undue emphasis being placed on findings that are unreliable. We would recommend that other users follow similar rules.

All tables are presented in the format 'dependent variable by independent variable' where the independent variable is being used to examine or explain variation in the dependent variable. Thus, a table titled 'housing tenure by household type' shows how housing tenures vary among different household types. All tables have a descriptive and numerical base showing the population or population sub-group examined in it. Bases are shown unweighted.

Reporting conventions for the SHS show percentages in tables rounded to the nearest whole number: zero values are shown as a dash (-); values greater than zero but less that 0.5% are shown as zero; and values of 0.5% but less than 1% are rounded up to 1%.

Percentages are removed from columns where the base on which percentages would be calculated is less than 100. This data is judged to be insufficiently reliable for publication.

6.2 Frequencies

Frequencies provide statistics and graphical displays that are useful for describing many types of variables. They display both the number and percentage of cases for each observed value of a variable. For a first look at your data, the frequencies procedure is a good place to start.

An illustrative example can be found in Section 8.2 on page . For easy reference however, the basic steps that you would need to take are given below.

6.2.1 Creating a Frequency Table

Figure 17 - Frequencies dialog box showing one selected variable

Figure 18 - How the random adult usually travels to work/education Frequency table

Figure 18 illustrates a number of things:

• The number of people giving each response (frequency column).
• The percentage of the whole sample giving each response (percent column).
• The percentage of people who answered the question giving each response (valid percent column). This is different from the total sample because some people do not complete the random adult section of the survey (about 6% of the respondents) and because the question only applies to people in work or in education. For these people - 56% of the full sample - the variable has no data (the System Missing value).

If you refer to the Estimated Sampling Error table on page , it is possible to estimate confidence intervals for these percentages by using the closest values for the valid percentage and the frequency. For example, the survey shows that 16% of adults in work or education walk to work (see Figure 18). This allows us to estimate that among the population as a whole the true percentage of adults walking to work/education would lie within a range of 1.9% of the value in the survey i.e. between 14% and 17.8%.

6.2.2 Creating a Frequency Chart

You can graphically display the information in a frequency table with a bar or pie chart.

Creating a Chart

Figure 19 - Charts dialog box

Figure 20 - How the random adult usually travels to work/education Bar Chart

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