Scottish Household Survey (SHS)

In summary:

• Available from: UK data archive.
• Registration required: yes.
• First survey available: 1999.
• Frequency: annual.
• Updated: December.
• Scope: Scotland.
• Format: SPSS, STATA or TAB.
• Files: 5 files per year but the only one that is substantive is the household-level file.
• Documentation: comprehensive.
• Weighted or unweighted: weighted.
• Household income data: yes but unequivalised only.

Note that:

• Although the SHS dataset is published on an annual basis, the files for a particular year sometimes also contain the records for the previous year.
• Although there is no individual-level file, each record in the household-level file contains some information about a ‘random adult’ in that household.

Which software to use

As the annual dataset is around 15,000 records, it can be exported into Excel.

What weights to use

There are two weights: a household weight and a weight for the random adults who were interviewed and care should be taken to choose the right one for the analysis required.  If the variables to be analysed relate to the household, use the household weight but if the variables to be analysed relate to individual adults then use the random adult weight.  Furthermore, if the analysis is using the random adult weight, then those records with a null weight should be excluded.

What topics to analyse

Note that not all questions are asked every year.  So, for example, the questions about involvement in the community have not been asked since 2002 and the questions about worries about crime were not asked prior to 2002.

Scottish graphs

Notes:

• For those analyses which use the random adult weight, exclude those with a null weight.
• For those analyses which are by household income, allocate each record to a household income quintile, calculating the quintile thresholds required to achieve this.