Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. 

The Wales Life and Times Studies (WLTS) have grown out of a programme of work conducted by the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends (CREST) in collaboration with the Institute of Welsh Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, in response to the constitutional changes brought about by devolution. In 1997 a referendum study was conducted in Wales and Scotland (held at the UK Data Archive under SN:3952), followed by election studies covering the first elections in 1999 to the Welsh National Assembly (held under SN:4180) and Scottish Parliament, both funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). When the ESRC announced its intention to carry out surveys in all parts of the UK in 2001 and 2003 under the Devolution and Constitutional Change Programme, the Welsh component became WLTS. An earlier Welsh election study, covering the 1979 general election, is also held at the UK Data Archive under SN:1591, but is not part of the WLTS series. The Welsh Life and Times Study (Welsh Assembly Election Study), 2007 served as a Welsh Assembly Election Study for the 2007 Welsh National Assembly elections.

Main Topics:

The dataset contains the replies of respondents in Wales to questions on newspaper readership and internet, party identification, public services, Welsh National Assembly voting, Welsh election, and national and class identity. Classificatory information was also collected on health, housing tenure, Welsh speaking, religion, ethnicity, education, economic activity, job details, and income. There was also a self-completion questionnaire which included questions on public services, voting and proportional representation. Standard Measures: Left-right scale.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Face-to-face interview

Self-completion