Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Family Expenditure Survey (FES), which closed in 2001, was a continuous survey with an annual sample of around 10,000 households. They provided information on household and personal incomes, certain payments that recurred regularly (e.g. rent, gas and electricity bills, telephone accounts, insurances, season tickets and hire purchase payments), and maintained a detailed expenditure record for 14 consecutive days.

The original purpose of the FES was to provide information on spending patterns for the United Kingdom Retail Price Index (RPI). The survey was a cost-efficient way of collecting a variety of related data that the government departments required to correlate with income and expenditure at the household, tax unit and person levels. The annual FES began in 1957 (with an earlier large scale survey conducted in 1953/54) and was one of the first Department of Employment (DE) systems to be computerised in the early 1960s. The UKDA holds FES data from 1961-2001. The Northern Ireland Family Expenditure Survey (NIFES), which ran from 1967-1998, was identical to the UK FES and therefore used the same questionnaires and documentation. However, starting in 1988, a voluntary question on religious denomination was asked of those aged 16 and over in Northern Ireland. The UKDA holds NIFES data from 1968-1998, under GN 33240.

Significant FES developments over time include:

• 1968: the survey was extended to include a sample drawn from the Northern Ireland FES and a new computer system was introduced which was used until 1985
• 1986: DE and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) converted the FES into a new database system using the SIR package
• 1989: the Central Statistical Office (CSO) took over responsibility for the survey
• 1994: in April, computerised personal interviewing was introduced using lap-top computers, the database system changed to INGRES and the survey changed from a calendar year to financial year basis
• 1996: in April, OPCS and CSO were amalgamated into the Office for National Statistics (ONS), who assumed responsibility for the FES
• 1998: from April onwards information from expenditure diaries kept by children aged 7 to 15 was included in data, and grossing factors were made available on the database

From 2001, the both the FES and the National Food Survey (NFS) (held at the UKDA under GN 33071) were completely replaced by a new survey, the Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS). Prior to the advent of the EFS, there had previously been considerable overlap between the FES and NFS, with both surveys asking respondents to keep a diary of expenditure. Thus, the 2000-2001 FES was the final one in the series. The design of the new EFS was based on the previous FES; further background to its development may be found in the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 Family Spending reports. From 2008, the EFS became the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF) (see under GN 33334).


Main Topics:
Household Schedule:
This schedule was taken at the main interview. Information for most of the questions was obtained from the head of household or housewife, but certain questions of a more individual character were put to every spender aged 15 or over (or 16 or over from 1973 onwards). Until the introduction of the community charge, information on rateable value and rate poundage was obtained from the appropriate local authority, as was information on whether the address was within a smokeless zone. Information was collected about the household, the sex and age of each member, and also details about the type and size of the household accommodation. The main part of the questionnaire related to expenditure both of a household and individual nature, but the questions were mainly confined to expenses of a recurring nature, e.g.:

• Household: housing costs, payment to Gas and Electricity Boards or companies, telephone charges, licences and television rental
• Individual: motor vehicles, season tickets for transport, life and accident insurances, payments through a bank, instalments, refund of expenses by employer, expenditure claimed by self-employed persons as business expenses for tax purposes, welfare foods, education grants and fees

Income Schedule:
Data were collected for each household spender. The schedule was concerned with income, national insurance contributions and income tax. Income of a child not classed as a spender was obtained from one or other of his parents and entered on the parent's questionnaire. Information collected included: employment status and recent absences from work, earnings of an employee, self-employed earnings, National Insurance contributions, pensions and other regular allowances, occasional benefits - social security benefits and other...

Detailed breakdown of average weekly household expenditure on goods and services in the UK. Data are shown by place of purchase, income group (deciles) and age of household reference person.

Average weekly household expenditure on goods and services in the UK. Data are shown by region, age, income (including equivalised) group (deciles and quintiles), economic status, socio-economic class, housing tenure, output area classification, urban and rural areas (Great Britain only), place of purchase and household composition.

Data are shown by region, age, income (including equivalised) group (deciles and quintiles), economic status, socio-economic class, housing tenure, output area classification, urban and rural areas (Great Britain only), place of purchase and household composition.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Using representative surveys of the entire population, this research project analysed the similarities and differences between Soviet and Russian household behaviour in the informal economy during 1996-1999. The research was based primarily on unpublished archive material - Soviet family budget surveys - for the Soviet period, and regular Russian household/ adult surveys for the post-Soviet period. In particular, the project estimated and compared the size, dynamics and determinants of household behaviour in the informal economy in the two periods, and also assessed the impact of household informal economy activities on the Soviet or current Russian economy.
The continuous Soviet annual family budget survey (FBS), covering the entire population of the USSR was conducted from the early 1950s onwards under the auspices of the Soviet Central Statistical Administration. Comprehensive and detailed summary results of annual data from the family budget surveys of Soviet households aggregated by types of heads of households such as workers and state employees and collective farm workers are kept in three Russian archives. This dataset was created using some of the results from the FBS.
Main Topics:

Data are aggregated by types of heads of households (or social classes in Russian terminology), and include 35 income variables, 62 expenditure-related variables and nine savings-related variables. Each variable on the income side shows the sources of income (the state, collective farms, and other people) and each variable on the expenditure side shows to whom payment was made (the state sector, collective farms, or other people). In total, eight data files have been created:
Russian workers and state employees' families (1969-1990),
Russian collective farm ('kolkhoz') workers' families (1969-1990),
Russian pure pensioners' families who retired from jobs relating to workers and state employees (1977-1990),
Russian pure pensioners' families who retired from jobs relating to collective farms (1977-1990),
Russian state farms ('sovkhoz') workers' families (1977-1990),
Average family in the Soviet Union as a whole (1979-1990),
Soviet workers and state employees' families (1969-1990),
Soviet collective farm workers' families (1969-1990).

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 questionnaire was altered to accommodate the insertion of a core set of questions, common to all of the separate modules which together comprised 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. 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, including links to published reports based on the survey, may be found by searching for 'Living Costs and Food Survey' on the ONS website. 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.

History:
The LCF (then EFS) was the result of more than two years' development work to bring together the FES and NFS; both survey series were well-established and important sources of information for government and the wider community, and had charted changes and patterns in spending and food consumption since the 1950s. Whilst the NFS and FES series are now finished, users should note that previous data from both series are still available from the UK Data Archive, under GNs 33071 (NFS) and 33057 (FES).

Purpose of the LCF
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has overall project management and financial responsibility for the LCF, while the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) sponsors the food data element. 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 is based on the old FES, although the use of new processing software by the data creators has resulted in a dataset which differs from the previous 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 previously used. An additional level of hierarchy has been developed to improve the mapping to the previous codes. The LCF was conducted on a financial year basis from 2001, then moved to a calendar year basis from January 2006 (to complement the IHS) until 2015-16, when the financial year survey was reinstated at the request of users. Therefore, whilst SN 5688 covers April 2005 - March 2006, SN 5986 covers January-December 2006. Subsequent years cover January-December until 2014. SN 8210 returns to the financial year survey and currently covers April 2015 - March 2016.

Northern Ireland sample
Users 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.

Family Food database:
'Family Food' is an annual publication which provides detailed statistical information on purchased quantities, expenditure and nutrient intakes derived from both household and eating out food and drink. Data is collected for a sample of households in the United Kingdom using self-reported diaries of all purchases, including food eaten out, over a two week period. Where possible quantities are recorded in the diaries but otherwise estimated. Energy and nutrient intakes are calculated using standard nutrient composition data for each of some 500 types of food. Current estimates are based on data collected in the Family Food...

Average weekly household expenditure on goods and services in the UK. Data are shown by region, age, income (including equivalised) group (deciles and quintiles), economic status, socio-economic class, housing tenure, output area classification, urban and rural areas (Great Britain only), place of purchase and household composition.

According to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom, the average weekly spending on cinema, theatre, and museum was highest among households belonging to the highest ten percent gross income decile group in the fiscal year ending 2022. On average, households belonging to this decile group spent 3.7 British pounds weekly on visits to cinema, theatre, and museums.

In the United Kingdom, a 2023 survey showed that people aged between 50 and 64 spent on average the highest amount of mone on audio-visual and photograpihc equipment daily, roughly 5.5 British pounds.

The statistic shows the average weekly household expenditure on men's, women's and children's under garments in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2023, by gross income decile group. On average, households in the ninth decile group spent 1.60 British pounds per week on women's undergarments. In comparison, the lowest income group spent just 40 pence.

According to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom, households belonging to the highest ten percent gross income decile group spent the most on recreation and culture in the fiscal year ending 2023. On average, households belonging to this income decile group spent 124.6 British pounds weekly, roughly five times as much as those in the lowest decile.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Northern Ireland Family Expenditure Survey (NIFES) was conducted in Northern Ireland from 1967-1998, and was the counterpart to the Family Expenditure Survey (FES), which was conducted annually in Great Britain from 1957-2001 (see under GN 33057). The FES/NIFES provided reliable data on expenditure and income in relation to household characteristics. The results of the survey show how expenditure patterns of different kinds of households vary, and the extent to which individual members of a household contribute to the household income. Although originally commissioned to provide expenditure details for the calculation of weights for the Retail Price Index, the FES/NIFES collected much additional information was also collected on the characteristics of co-operating households and the incomes of their members. It thus became a multi-purpose survey, and provided a unique fund of important economic and social data. From 1968 the Great Britain FES incorporated a sample drawn from the NIFES to become the UK FES. The FES was replaced in 2001 by a new survey series, the Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS) (see under GN 33334), covering the whole of the UK. The EFS is an amalgamation of the previous National Food Survey (NFS) (see under GN 33071) and UK FES. Main Topics:Household Schedule: This schedule was taken at the main interview. Information for most of the questions was obtained from the head of household or housewife, but certain questions of a more individual character were put to every spender aged 15 or over (or 16 or over from 1973 onwards). Until the introduction of the community charge, information on rateable value and rate poundage was obtained from the appropriate local authority, as was information on whether the address was within a smokeless zone. Information was collected about the household, the sex and age of each member, and also details about the type and size of the household accommodation. The main part of the questionnaire related to expenditure both of a household and individual nature, but the questions were mainly confined to expenses of a recurring nature, e.g.:Household: housing costs, payment to Gas and Electricity Boards and companies, telephone charges, licences and television rentalIndividual: motor vehicles, season tickets for transport, life and accident insurances, payments through a bank, instalments, refund of expenses by employer, expenditure claimed by self-employed persons as business expenses for tax purposes, welfare foods, education grants and feesIncome Schedule: Data were collected for each household spender. Apart from page 1, the schedule was concerned with income, National Insurance contributions and income tax. Income of a child not classed as a spender was obtained from one or other of his parents and entered on the parent's questionnaire. Information collected included: employment status and recent absences from work, earnings of an employee, self-employed earnings, National Insurance contributions, pensions and other regular allowances, occasional benefits - social security benefits and other types, investment income, miscellaneous earnings of a 'once-only' character, tax paid directly to Inland Revenue or refunded, income of a child. Diary Records Each diary covered fourteen days. Each household member aged 15 or over (or 16 or over from 1973 onwards) was asked to record all expenditure made during the 14 days. The NIFES was identical to the UK FES and therefore used the same questionnaires and documentation. However, starting in 1988, a voluntary question on religious denomination was asked of those aged 16 and over in Northern Ireland.

According to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom, respondents with a household reference person aged between 50 to 64 spent an average of 2.4 British pounds a week on cinema, theater, and museums in the fiscal year ending March 2022. This was the highest figure among all age groups. By contrast, respondents with a household reference person aged 75 and older had an average weekly spending of 0.6 British pounds on cinema, theater, and museums.

Data are shown by region, age, income (including equivalised) group (deciles and quintiles), economic status, socio-economic class, housing tenure, output area classification, urban and rural areas (Great Britain only), place of purchase and household composition.

According to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom, households belonging to the highest ten percent gross income decile group spent the most on alcoholic drinks consumed away from home in the fiscal year ending 2023. On average, households belonging to this income decile group spent 11.3 British pounds weekly. Meanwhile, the average for all households stood at 5.6 British pounds.

According to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom, households belonging to the highest ten percent gross income decile group spent the most on equipment for sports, camping, and open-air recreation in the fiscal year ending 2023. On average, households belonging to this income decile group spent two British pounds weekly on sports and outdoor equipment. In comparison, households belonging the seventh decile group spent one British pound per week on sports and camping equipment.

Average weekly household expenditure on goods and services in the UK. Data are shown by region, age, income (including equivalised) group (deciles and quintiles), economic status, socio-economic class, housing tenure, output area classification, urban and rural areas (Great Britain only), place of purchase and household composition.

According to a 2023 survey conducted in the United Kingdom, average weekly spending on gambling payments was highest among households belonging to the third and fourth gross income decile groups that year. On average, households belonging to those decile groups spent 1.3 British pounds weekly on gambling.

Details of the first estimates of household final consumption expenditure (HHFCE), by major product, to assist users in understanding the assumptions behind the estimates.