The Community Life Survey (CLS) is a household survey conducted in England, tracking the latest trends and developments across areas key to encouraging social action and empowering communities, including: volunteering and charitable giving; views about the local area; community cohesion and belonging; community empowerment and participation; influencing local decisions and affairs; and subjective well-being and loneliness.

The CLS was first commissioned by the Cabinet Office in 2012. From 2016-17, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) took over responsibility for publishing results. During 2020, the DCMS also commissioned the Community Life COVID-19 Re-contact Survey (CLRS) (SN 8781) to provide data on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected volunteering, charitable giving, social cohesion, wellbeing and loneliness in England.

For the 2023-24 and 2024-25 survey years, DCMS partnered with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to boost the CLS to be able to produce meaningful estimates at Local Authority level. This has enabled data collection at the most granular level since data collection commenced. The questionnaire for 2023-24 was developed collaboratively to adapt to the needs and interests of both DCMS and MHCLG, including some new questions and changes to existing questions, response options and definitions in the 2023-24 and upcoming 2024-25 surveys.

Background
Up to 2015-16, the survey used a face-to-face methodology. Following thorough testing (experimental online versions of the survey were released for 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16), the CLS moved online from 2016-17 onwards, with an end to the previous face-to-face method. The survey uses a push-to-web methodology (with paper mode for those who are not digitally engaged). The survey informs and directs policy and action in these areas;

• to provide data of value to all users, including public bodies, external stakeholders and the public; and
• underpin further research and debate on building stronger communities.

The CLS incorporates a small number of priority measures from the Citizenship Survey, which ran from 2001-2011, conducted by the then Department for Communities and Local Government. These measures were incorporated in the CLS so that trends in these issues could continue to be tracked over time. (The full Citizenship Survey series is held at the UK Data Archive under GNs 33347 and 33474.)

Further information may be found on the GOV.UK Community Life Survey webpage.

The Community Life Survey, 2020 -2021 (CLS) covers April 2020 - March 2021 and forms 'Official Statistics', meaning that it meets the high standards of quality set out by the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Further information may be found on the GOV.UK "https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-life-survey-202021">Community Life Survey, 2020/21 webpage.

Latest edition information

For the second edition (June 2025) two new variables were added: ResponseGroup (‘Grouped predicted response (stratum for assigning paper questionnaires') and ProbPaperIn2ndReminder (‘P(allocated to get paper in second reminder). These variables support research into mode-specific measurement effects.

The Survey Futures project, funded by the ESRC, includes a strand concerned with the issue of mode-specific measurement effects. One of the surveys that would provide important information to support this strand is the CLS 2020-2021, because it included an experiment whereby addresses were probabilistically allocated to either receive or not receive paper questionnaires in one of the reminder mailings. The addition of the two new variables supports this research.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Community Life Survey was first commissioned by the Cabinet Office in 2012-2013. It is a household survey conducted in England, tracking the latest trends and developments across areas key to encouraging social action and empowering communities, including:

• volunteering and charitable giving;
• views about the local area;
• community cohesion and belonging;
• community empowerment and participation;
• influencing local decisions and affairs; and
• subjective well-being

Up to 2015-16, the survey used a face-to-face methodology. Following thorough testing, the CLS moved to an online and paper mixed-method approach from 2016-17 onwards (a paper self-completion questionnaire being available as an alternative to the online survey), with an end to previous current face-to-face method. The objectives of the survey are to: The objectives of the survey are to:

• provide robust, nationally representative data on behaviours and attitudes within communities to inform and direct policy and action in these areas;
• to provide data of value to all users, including public bodies, external stakeholders and the public; and
• underpin further research and debate on building stronger communities

The Community Life Survey incorporates a small number of priority measures from the Citizenship Survey, which ran from 2001-2011, conducted by the Department for Communities and Local Government. These measures were incorporated in the Community Life Survey so that trends in these issues could continue to be tracked over time. (The full Citizenship Survey series is held at the UK Data Archive under GNs 33347 and 33474.)

Further information may be found on the gov.uk Community Life Survey website.


The 2016-17 survey covers August 2016 - March 2017 and forms 'Official Statistics', meaning that it meets the high standards of quality set out by the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

End User Licence and Special Licence data
Users should note that there are two versions of each Community Life Survey dataset. One is available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement, and the other is a Special Licence (SL) version. The SL version contains more detailed variables relating to: social class; ethnicity; religion and sexual identity (see Main Topics section for details).

The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard EUL. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. Therefore, users are strongly advised to order the standard version of the data.

The standard EUL version of the Community Life Survey, 2016-2017 dataset is held under SN 8294.


Main Topics:

The main topics include measures that are key to understanding our society and local communities such as volunteering, charitable giving, neighbourhood, civic engagement, social action and subjective well-being.
The Community Life Survey, 2016-2017: Special Licence Access data file includes the following extra variables:

• SOC2010 Sub-Major Group (SOC10smg)
• Ethnic group: 6 categories (Ethnic6)
• Ethnic group: 11 categories (Ethnic11a)
• Respondents Ethnic origin and age (excludes Mixed/Other) (Rethage9a)
• Sex within Ethnicity: 11 categories (E11sex1)
• Sex within Ethnicity: 10 categories (E5sex1)
• Whether practising for each religion (Actrel)
• Respondent religion: 7 categories (Jewish included in other)(Relig7)
• Practice status for each religion (Relstat)
• Ethno-Religious groups: 11 categories (E11Relig1)
• Respondent sexual identity: 3 categories (Sid2)
• Health Board : Subgroup (Hthsubgp)

This dataset comes from the Community Survey questions relating to the Community Health & Well-Being performance measure: "With “10” representing the best possible life for you and “0” representing the worst, how would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?" and "With “10” representing the best possible life for you and “0” representing the worst, how do you think you will stand about five years from now?" – the results of both scores are then used to assess a Cantril Scale which is a way of assessing general life satisfaction. As per the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale the three categories of identification are as follows: Thriving – Respondents rate their current life as a 7 or higher AND their future life as an 8 or higher. Struggling – Respondents either rate their current life moderately (5 or 6) OR rate their future life moderately (5, 6 or 7) or negatively (0 to 4). Suffering – Respondents rate their current life negatively (0 to 4) AND their future life negatively (0 to 4). The survey is mailed to a random sample of households in the City of Tempe and has a 95% confidence level.This page provides data for the Community Health and Well-Being performance measure. The performance measure dashboard is available at 3.34 Community Health and Well-Being. Additional InformationSource: Community Attitude Survey (Vendor: ETC Institute)Contact: Adam SamuelsContact email: adam_samuels@tempe.govPreparation Method: Survey results from two questions are calculated to create a Cantril Scale value that falls into the categories of Thriving, Struggling, and Suffering.Publish Frequency: AnnuallyPublish Method: ManualData Dictionary

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This dataset is drawn from a hyperlocal version of the Community Life Survey, an annual nationally-representative survey that provides official statistics on issues key to encouraging social action and empowering communities.

For this research, Kantar Public undertook surveys in the seven areas identified as having an established and growing community business sector by the Power to Change Empowering Places programme. Further details about this research can be found on the Empowering Places? Measuring the impact of community businesses at neighbourhood level - A baseline study webpage.

Main Topics:

• Social behaviour and attitudes
• Community, urban and rural life
• Social welfare policy and systems

This dataset is about books. It has 87 rows and is filtered where the book subjects is Community life. It features 9 columns including author, publication date, language, and book publisher.

Update Frequency: Update frequency: Datasets are refreshed every night to ensure the most current information is available. Even if there are no changes, the data will be updated nightly.

Locations of community living arrangement facilities within Milwaukee County, as recorded by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Locations within Milwaukee City limits have been separated into their own layers. https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/guide/cbrf.htm https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/guide/afh.htm http://dcf.wisconsin.gov/childrenresidential/directories/CW-Directories.HTM

The Community Life survey is a household self-completion survey of adults aged 16+ in England. The survey provides evidence on social cohesion, community engagement and social action.

This report summarises the results from the survey and provides comparisons between London and the rest of England.

There are other surveys that provide more granular evidence on these topics within London, but this survey has been selected to provide a regional comparison.

Further details of the breakdowns presented in this report can be accessed through the data tables on the Community Life survey webpage.

Note: This dataset is historical only and there are not corresponding datasets for more recent time periods. For that more-recent information, please visit the Chicago Health Atlas at https://chicagohealthatlas.org.

This dataset gives the average life expectancy and corresponding confidence intervals for each Chicago community area for the years 1990, 2000 and 2010. See the full description at: https://data.cityofchicago.org/api/views/qjr3-bm53/files/AAu4x8SCRz_bnQb8SVUyAXdd913TMObSYj6V40cR6p8?download=true&filename=P:\EPI\OEPHI\MATERIALS\REFERENCES\Life Expectancy\Dataset description - LE by community area.pdf

Office of Aging Lead Agency Service Boundary. The dataset contains service boundaries and attributes of lead agencies funded by the DC Office of Aging, created as part of the DC Geographic Information System (DC GIS) for the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) and participating D.C. government agencies. A database provided by the Office of Aging identified Lead Agency service boundaries. Lead Agencies are comprehensive service-delivery organizations that plan and deliver direct services to the District''s elderly residents and their caregivers.

The Community Indicators project is a research-based initiative that is part of the Knight Foundation's ongoing effort to learn more about the 26 communities it serves through its grant-making. To document changes in the quality of life in its communities, the foundation tracks a few key indicators over time. The project focuses on aspects of community life related to the six grant-making areas that are the priority of the Knight Community Partners Program. The Knight Community Partners Program prefers to make grants in the following six priority areas: education; the well-being of children and families; housing and community development; economic development; civic engagement and positive human relations; and the vitality of cultural life. The foundation expected to update both the community surveys and the community profiles approximately every three years. Local area surveys were conducted in each of the 26 communities in both 1999 and 2002. In 2002, a number of the local area surveys were supplemented with regional surveys or surveys of a neighboring city. The 26 local areas surveyed in 1999 were: Milledgeville, GA; Long Beach, CA; Gary, IN; Boca Raton (Palm Beach County), FL; Boulder, CO; Philadelphia, PA; Akron, OH; Macon, GA; Columbus, GA; Aberdeen, SD; Grand Forks, ND; Wichita, KS; Charlotte, NC; Columbia, SC; Myrtle Beach, SC; Tallahassee, FL; Duluth, MN; St. Paul, MN; State College, PA; Fort Wayne, IN; Biloxi, MS; Detroit, MI; Lexington, KY; San Jose, CA; Bradenton, FL; Miami, FL. For 2002, the 11 regional and neighboring city areas also surveyed were: Charlotte, NC - Regional; Columbus, SC - Second City; Detroit, MI - Regional; Duluth, MN - Second City; Gary, IN - Regional; Grand Forks, SD - Second City; Lexington, KY - Regional; Philadelphia, PA - Regional; Philadelphia, PA - Second City, and Miami - Dade, FL and Miami - Broward, FL in place of Miami, FL. National surveys were also conducted in order to provide comparative benchmark measures. The surveys measured citizens' civic engagement and attitudes concerning seven topic areas: education, arts and culture, children and social welfare, community development, homelessness, literacy, and citizenship. Questions relating specifically to arts and culture include frequency of attendance at arts events or museums and satisfaction with arts and cultural opportunities. The study was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates and funded by the Knight Foundation. In 1999, 17,417 telephone interviews were conducted from February 10 through December 1. In 2002, 21,722 telephone interviews were conducted from January 2 through October 3.

Analysis of data from the Community Life Survey looking at how 16- to 24-year-olds engage with their local area, compared with adults aged 25 and over. The data covers England only.

This dataset gives the average life expectancy and corresponding confidence intervals for each Chicago community area for the years 1990, 2000 and 2010. See the full description at: https://data.cityofchicago.org/api/views/qjr3-bm53/files/AAu4x8SCRz_bnQb8SVUyAXdd913TMObSYj6V40cR6p8?download=true&filename=P:\EPI\OEPHI\MATERIALS\REFERENCES\Life Expectancy\Dataset description - LE by community area.pdf

Financial overview and grant giving statistics of Community Life Center Inc.

This is a monthly report on publicly funded community services for people of all ages using data from the Community Services Data Set (CSDS) reported in England for July 2024. It has been developed to help achieve better outcomes and provide data that will be used to commission services in a way that improves health, reduces inequalities, and supports service improvement and clinical quality. These statistics are classified as experimental and should be used with caution. Experimental statistics are new official statistics undergoing evaluation. More information about experimental statistics can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website (linked at the bottom of this page). A provisional data file for August 2024 is now included in this publication. Please note this is intended as an early view until providers submit a refresh of their data, which will be published next month.