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(Table 6, Table 7, Table 8, Table 9; Chart E)
5.1 The interviewer asks the Highest Income Householder (or his/her spouse/partner) about the type (if any) of driving licence held by each adult member of the household. In cases where an adult is said to have a full driving licence, the interviewer asks how often the person drives nowadays, and - if so - what are his/her main reasons for driving. Two points should be noted. First, some of the answers were not provided by the person to whom they relate. Second, because a full driving licence is only available to those who are aged 17 or over, all the statistics in this section (and in Tables 6 to 9) relate only to people aged 17+.
5.2 Driving licences
5.2.1 Table 6 shows that, in 1999, almost two-thirds (64%) of people aged 17+ were said to have a full driving licence, and a further 6% had a provisional driving licence. Very few people were currently disqualified or had had a licence suspended on medical grounds. More than a quarter (28%) of people aged 17+ had never held a UK driving licence.
5.2.2 There were differences between the sexes: 77% of men aged 17+ held a full driving licence, compared with only 53% of women. There was also considerable variation with age-group: the percentage with a full driving licence rose rapidly from 30% of 17-19 year olds to over three quarters of 30-39 and 40-49 year olds, then fell to under a quarter of those aged 80 and over. A provisional licence was held by a third of people aged 17-19, one in eight of people aged 20-29, and by smaller percentages of people in the older age-groups. 3% of 70-79 year olds, and 6% of those aged 80 or over, had had a licence suspended on medical grounds. These were also the only age-groups for which there were many people for whom it was not known (or not recorded) what kind of driving licence (if any) was held. (There may be two reasons for this: first, the question was answered on behalf of each adult in the household by either the Highest Income Householder or his/her spouse/partner; second, the version of the questionnaire used in 1999 did not have the code which is now used to identify people who did not reapply for a driving licence on reaching the age of 70.)
5.2.3 The percentage of people aged 17+ who have a full driving licence (car or motorcycle) is analysed in detail in Table 7. In this table, each figure is the percentage of the relevant population who have a full driving licence: for example, the "32" at the start of the second row indicates that 32% of men aged 17 to 19 held a full driving licence. An asterisk appears in cases where the relevant population sub-group had fewer than 100 people in the SHS sample.
5.2.4 As mentioned earlier, the percentage of people aged 17+ who held a full driving licence was higher for men than for women. This was the case for every age group, as can be seen from the first two rows of Table 7 and from Chart E (which shows the percentages for "five year" age-groups). In general, the difference between the sexes increased with age: it was only 5 percentage points for 17-19 year olds but was 36 percentage points for those aged 60-69.
5.2.5 Table 7 also shows that 93% of self-employed people aged 17+ held a full driving licence, compared with 82% of those who were employed full-time and 66% of those who were employed part-time. Only 41% of people aged 17+ who were said to be permanently sick or disabled held a driving licence. The percentage varied with the social class of the Highest Income Householder (from 88% of people aged 17+ in "professional" households to 42% of those in "unskilled" households) and with annual net household income (from just over two-fifths of people aged 17+ in "up to £10,000" households to around nine-tenths of those in "over £30,000" households). There were differences between types of neighbourhood (over four-fifths of people aged 17+ in MOSAIC "high income" and "country dweller" areas held a full driving licence, compared with around a third of those in "families in council flats" areas and two-fifths of those in "renting singles" areas). Over three-quarters of people aged 17+ living in SHS-classified rural areas held a full driving licence, compared with under three-fifths of those in the four city settlements.
5.3 Frequency of driving
5.3.1 In cases where a person is described as having a full driving licence (either car or motorcycle), the interviewer asks the Highest Income Householder (or his/her spouse/partner) how often the person drives nowadays. The results are shown in Table 8. Overall, 44% of people aged 17+ were said to drive every day, and a further 7% drove at least three times per week. 5% were described as driving once or twice a week, and a few people reportedly drove less frequently: 1% "at least two or three times a month"; 1% "at least once a month"; and 2% "less than once a month". The 4% of people who were said to hold a full driving licence but "never drive nowadays" accounted for the remainder of the 64% who had a full driving licence.
5.3.2 The sexes differed in their frequency of driving: in 1999, over half (56%) of men aged 17+ were said to drive every day, compared with about a third (34%) of women. Chart E shows that the percentage who drove every day was higher for men for every age-group, with the difference between the sexes tending to increase with age up to the 65-69 age-group (thereafter the gap narrowed, because the percentage of older men who drove every day fell more rapidly than the lower percentage for women fell). About three-fifths of people aged between 30 and 49 drove every day.
5.3.3 The percentage of people aged 17+ who drove every day was highest for the self-employed (77%), people in "professional" households (65%), people in households with an annual net income of over £30,000 (72%), people living in MOSAIC "high income areas" (62%) and people living in SHS-classified rural areas (around 55%); and lowest for those who were permanently sick or disabled (17%), in "unskilled" households (27%), in households with an annual net income of up to £10,000 (around 22-23%), in MOSAIC "families in council flats" and "renting singles" areas (about 21-22%) and in the four city settlements (37%).
5.4 Reasons for driving
5.4.1 In cases where the person is said to drive nowadays, the interviewer asks the Highest Income Householder (or his/her spouse/partner) about the person's main reasons for driving. The results are set out at the top of Table 9. Of all the people aged 17+ who were said to drive nowadays, 6% drove for a living (eg making deliveries, or as a bus, taxi or lorry driver), 16% drove on business (eg to go to meetings or to see people), 88% drove for social or personal reasons, and 52% drove to or from work. (The percentages total more than 100% because more than one reason could be given for each person.) The percentages said to drive for a living, on business, and to and from work were higher for men than women; a higher percentage of women than men were said to drive for social or personal reasons. As would be expected, the percentages said to drive for work-related reasons varied greatly with age.
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