Notes
Living in Wales (LIW)
Main uses
LIW is substantial general household survey for Wales. As such, it can be used for a wide variety of analyses of household circumstances and views in Wales.
It also surveys the individuals within in each household and, as such, can be used for analyses of individual circumstances and views in Wales.
LIW is the Welsh equivalent to the Survey of English Housing, Scottish Household Survey and Northern Irish Continuous Household Survey.
Source
In summary:
- Available from: the Welsh Assembly. Request via rhiannon.caunt@wales.gsi.gov.uk, 029 2082 5063.
- Registration required: yes.
- First survey available: 2004.
- Frequency: annual.
- Updated: December.
- Scope: Wales.
- Format: SPSS.
- Files: 4 files per year, with one at the household level and one at the individual level.
- Documentation: none.
- Weighted or unweighted: weighted.
- Household income data: yes but gross only (not net), unequivalised and in ranges only.
General issues
Which software to use
As the annual dataset is around 19,000 records for individuals and 8,000 records for households, it can be exported into Excel.
When to use the individual and household datasets
For most purposes, the household dataset is the one to use as it contains the vast majority of the data, with very limited data in the individual file.
What weights to use
There is only one weight in the dataset, which is effectively a household weight. For household-level analyses, this is clearly the weight to be used. For individual-level analyses, however (and most of the questions in the survey concern the views of a single randomly chosen adult in each household), use of this weight risks over-weighting the results for single-adult households in comparison with households with two or more adults. In this case, there are two choices: either use the household weight and present the results as proportions of households (effectively assuming that the views of the respondent fairly reflect the views of the household as a whole) or derive an individual adult weight by multiplying the household weight by the number of adults in the household.
What topics to analyse
Note that different questions are asked in different years. Furthermore, some of the questions that were asked in all years have differing possible answers and are thus not strictly comparable. The key is to look at the field name as well as its description: if the field names are the same then the questions are identical; if, however, the field names are different then the questions are in some way different even if the descriptions are the same.
Related to the above, some variables have two versions, one 'du' and the other 'non-du'. It is the 'du' ones which should be used as they apparently include handwritten answers.
Relevant graphs on this website
Welsh graphs
| Indicator | Table | Graphs | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dissatisfaction with local area | household | first | Although this issue in principle relates to individuals, the data is actually in the household table. Question not asked in 2006. |
| second | Although this issue in principle relates to individuals, the data is actually in the household table. |
||
| Non-participation | household | all | Although this issue in principle relates to individuals, the data is
actually in the household table. Question only asked in 2004. |
For those analyses which are by household income, allocate each household income group to a household income quintile, ensuring that the five income quintiles are of as similar a size as possible.