Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Background A household food consumption and expenditure survey has been conducted each year in Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) since 1940. At that time the National Food Survey (NFS) covered a sample drawn solely from urban working-class households, but this was extended to a fully demographically representative sample in 1950. From 1957 onwards the Family Expenditure Survey (FES) provided information on all household expenditure patterns including food expenditure, with the NFS providing more detailed information on food consumption and expenditure. The NFS was extended to cover Northern Ireland from 1996 onwards. In April 2001 these surveys were combined to form the Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS), which completely replaced both series. From January 2008, the EFS became known as the Living Costs and Food (LCF) module of the Integrated Household Survey (IHS). As a consequence of this change, the EFS questionnaire was altered to accommodate the insertion of a core set of questions, common to all of the separate modules which together comprise the IHS. Some of these core questions are simply questions which were previously asked in the same or a similar format on all of the IHS component surveys (including the EFS). For further information on the LCF questionnaire, see Volume A of the LCF 2008 User Guide, held with SN 6385. Further information about the LCF/EFS, including links to published reports based on the survey, may be found on the ONS Living Costs and Food Survey webpage. Further information on the NFS and Living Costs and Food Module of the IHS can be found by searching for 'Family Food' on the GOV.UK website. Purpose of the LCF (formerly EFS) The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has overall project management and financial responsibility for the LCF/EFS, while the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) sponsors the food data. As with the FES and NFS, the LCF continues to be primarily used to provide information for the Retail Prices Index, National Accounts estimates of household expenditure, analysis of the effect of taxes and benefits, and trends in nutrition. The results are multi-purpose, however, providing an invaluable supply of economic and social data. The merger of the two surveys also brings benefits for users, as a single survey on food expenditure removes the difficulties of reconciling data from two sources. Design and methodology The design of the LCF/EFS is based on the FES, although the use of new processing software by the data creators has resulted in a dataset which differs from the previous FES structure. The most significant change in terms of reporting expenditure, however, is the introduction of the European Standard Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP), in place of the codes used in the FES and NFS, which were unique to the two surveys. An additional level of hierarchy has been developed for the EFS to improve the mapping to the previous FES and NFS codes. The LCF/EFS was conducted on a financial year basis from 2001, but was moved from a financial to a calendar year basis from January 2006 in anticipation of the introduction of the IHS. Therefore, whilst SNs 4697, 5003, 5210, 5375 and 5688 cover 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 respectively, SN 5986 covers January-December 2006, and subsequent studies cover January-December of the survey year. The documentation for SN 5986 provides further details of the change in methodology. Northern Ireland sample Users of the LCF/EFS should note that, due to funding constraints, from January 2010 the Northern Ireland (NI) sample used for the LCF was reduced to a sample proportionate to the NI population relative to the UK. Variables available in the Secure Access version The Secure Access version includes geographical variables with detail below government office region up to the postcode level, and urban/rural area indicators, as well as other sensitive variables. Also included are the raw diary information files and the family expenditure codes files. In response to user demand, the Living Costs and Food Survey moved from a calendar to financial year survey from 2015. See documentation for further details of the change. Latest edition information For the 16th edition (November 2023), the diary files 'rawdry' and 'rawdryx' for 2020-2021, and the accompanying Volume D Expenditure Codes document, have been replaced with updated versions.

Main Topics:

Household questionnaire: The first part of the LCF/EFS questionnaire collects information about households; the majority of the questions are asked at a household-level, with the household reference person typically responding on behalf of the household as a whole. The household questionnaire includes questions on a range of subjects including family relationships, ethnicity, employment details and the ownership of household durables. It is also the source of all expenditure information not recorded in the LCF/EFS diary; principally that which concerns regular payments typically made by all households and large, infrequently purchased items such as vehicles, package holidays and home improvements. Individual questionnaire: The income questionnaire follows on immediately from the household questionnaire and collects the key person-level variables used on the survey. The principal components of the LCF income questionnaire are the sections covering income from employment, benefits and assets. These together form an overview of the total income received by each household, as well as each household member individually. LCF/EFS Diary: In addition to the two questionnaires, each individual aged 16 years and over in the household is asked to keep diary records of daily expenditure for two weeks. The raw diary data are held in separate files available only in the Secure Access version of the study. Standard measures Urban/rural area indicators: The rural and urban classification of postcodes for England and Wales allows datasets to be analysed according to different types of rural and urban area. This is based on the National Statistics Rural and Urban Classification of Output Areas released on 21 July 2004. In Scotland and Northern Ireland different sampling frames are used for this classification. For further details please refer to the document '6032userguide.pdf', included in the documentation for SN 6032 British Household Panel Survey, waves 1-17 (1991-2008)

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Face-to-face interview

Diaries