Statistical bulletin: Integrated Household Survey April 2010 to March 2011 : Experimental Statistics

Headline experimental statistics

• 1.5% of adults in the United Kingdom identified themselves as Gay/Lesbian or Bisexual
• 69% of people in Great Britain stated that they had a religious affiliation with Christianity
• 89% of people in the United Kingdom consider themselves in the White ethnic group
• across the UK, 80% of men and 78% of women report that they perceive themselves to be In good health

Summary about the IHS

The Integrated Household Survey (IHS) is the largest social survey ever produced by the Office for National Statistics.

The survey is comprised of a core suite of questions from five current ONS household surveys and contains information from over 420,000 individual respondents - the biggest pool of UK social data after the census.

The survey covers a number of themes including health, education, migration, housing and employment. Information and statistics about these themes can be found on the ONS website.

In April 2011 the ONS started to measure ‘subjective well-being’ i.e. asking individuals to provide their own assessment of their own well-being. Four questions were added to the IHS from the start of April 2011, with the first annual experimental dataset available from July 2012.

All IHS statistics are designated as experimental. Experimental statistics are new official statistics undergoing evaluation. They are published in order to involve customers and stakeholders in their development and as a means to build in quality at an early stage.

ONS continue to publish the rolling IHS dataset quarterly and plan to submit the survey for assessment to become a National Statistic by the UK Statistics Authority in due course.

Sexual Identity

The question on sexual identity was developed and tested on a number of surveys in 2008 and was added to the IHS in 2009. The data have been collected to provide accurate statistics to underpin the equality monitoring responsibilities of public sector organisations and to assess the disadvantage or relative discrimination experience by the lesbian, gay and bisexual population.

The sexual identity question was asked to respondents aged 16 years and over when they first entered all component IHS surveys, and was not asked by proxy. Proxy interviews are defined as those when answers are supplied by a third party, who is a member of the respondent’s household. A valid response was provided by 95 per cent of eligible responders.

The IHS data indicate that:

• 94 per cent of adults identified themselves as Heterosexual/Straight
• 1 per cent of the surveyed population, approximately 490,000 adults, identified themselves as Gay or Lesbian
• 0.5 per cent of the surveyed population, approximately 239,000 adults, identified themselves as Bisexual
• 0.4 per cent as ‘Other’
• 3.6 per cent of adults stated they ‘Don’t know’ or Refused the question
• 0.7 per cent of respondents provided ‘No response’ to the question

The ‘Other’ option on the question was to address the fact that not all people will fall in the first three categories.

A comparison by gender showed that 93.6 per cent of men and 94.3 per cent of women identified themselves as Heterosexual/Straight, the equivalent figures last year were 94.0 per cent of men and 94.5 per cent of women. Similar to last year, there was a larger proportion of men stating they were Gay, at 1.3 per cent, compared to women at 0.6 per cent.

At the regional level of England and the constituent countries of the UK, IHS data showed that in April 2010 to March 2011:

• 2.5 per cent of adults who live in London said they were gay/lesbian or bisexual
• less than 1 per cent of adults in the East of England and in East Midlands identified themselves as gay/lesbian or bisexual

Figure 1 - Proportion of Gay/Lesbian or Bisexual adults: by Region of England and Countries of the UK, April 2010 to March 2011

Source: Integrated Household Survey - Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. The total number of eligible responders to the question was 226,958 of which 216,593 provided a valid response. The question was asked to respondents aged 16 and over when they first entered all component IHS surveys, and was not asked by proxy.
2. The 'no response' category includes respondents who were aged 15 in wave 1 of the LFS/APS but are now aged 16 in the April 2010 to March 2011 field period.
3. Percentages might not add to 100 per cent due to rounding
4. The whisker bars represent the confidence intervals for each estimate

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A comparison by age group showed that 2.1 per cent of those aged 16 to 24 identified themselves as gay/lesbian or bisexual, compared to 0.6 per cent of those aged 65 and over.

Religion

The IHS data showed that in April 2010 to March 2011:

• 69 per cent of people in Great Britain stated that they had a religious affiliation with Christianity
• 4 per cent of people stated that they had a religious affiliation with being a Muslim
• 23 per cent stated of people stated that they had no religious affiliation

A comparison down by age group showed:

• people aged 25 to 34 had the lowest level of religious affiliation at 67 per cent, whilst people aged over 65 had the highest at 92 per cent

Ethnicity

The IHS data show that in April 2010 to March 2011:

• 89 per cent of people in the UK identified themselves as belonging to the White ethnic group
• 5 per cent identified themselves Asian or Asian British
• 3 per cent identified themselves Black or Black British
• 3 per cent identified themselves in an other ethnic group (Mixed, Chinese or Other Ethnic Group)

Similar to last year, the data showed that the most ethnically diverse Region in the UK was London, with:

• 64 per cent identifying themselves in the White ethnic group
• 14 per cent identifying themselves in the Asian or Asian British ethnic group
• 11 per cent identifying themselves in the Black or Black British ethnic group
• 11 per cent identified themselves in an other ethnic group (Mixed, Chinese or Other Ethnic Group)

The next most ethnically diverse region was the West Midlands with 10 per cent of respondents identifying themselves as Asian or Asian British and 3 per cent as Black or Black British.

Smoking prevalence by ethnic group for April 2010 to March 2011 showed:

• people who considered themselves in the mixed ethnic group had the highest level of current cigarette smokers at 27 per cent, with Asian or Asian British having the lowest at 13 per cent.
• people who considered themselves in the White ethnic group had the highest level of ex cigarette smokers at 34 per cent, with Asian or Asian British having the lowest at 12 per cent.
• people who considered themselves in the Asian or Asian British ethnic group had the highest level of those who have never smoked at 75 per cent, with those in the White and Mixed ethnic groups having the lowest at 44 per cent.

Figure 2 - Smoking Prevalence by Ethnicity, April 2010 to March 2011

Source: Integrated Household Survey - Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. The total number of eligible responders to the question was 327,473. This question was asked to respondents aged 18 and over and by proxy.
2. The six category aggregated ethnicity variable is reported in the table.
3. Changes have been made to ethnicity questions in January 2011.
4. Percentages may not add to 100 per cent due to rounding

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Perceived General Health

The survey asked people about their perception of their health in general. The IHS data show that, across the UK in April 2010 to March 2011:

• 80 per cent of men and 78 per cent of women perceive themselves to be In good health
• as in April 2009 to March 2010, of the constituent countries, Wales reported the lowest rate of perceived good health, at 75 per cent
• at the regional level the North East of England reported the lowest rate of perceived good health at 74 per cent, with London and the South East of England reporting the highest at 82 per cent

Figure 3 - Perceived General Health by Region and Constituent Country, April 2010 to March 2011

Source: Integrated Household Survey - Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. The total number of eligible responders to the question was 338,368. The question was asked to respondents aged 16 and over.
2. The health categories were dichotomised using the approach applied by Eurostat. The category 'In good health' comprises the 'very good' and 'good' percieved health categories; the category 'Not in good health' comprises the categories 'fair', 'bad' and 'very bad'.
3. Percentages may not add to 100 per cent due to rounding

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Estimates of perceived health by socio-economic position based on occupation using IHS data show that:

• people working in managerial and professional occupations reported the highest level of perceived very good health at 51 per cent, with those working in routine and manual occupations reporting the lowest at 40 per cent
• people working in the managerial and professional occupations reported the lowest level of perceived bad health at 1.5 per cent, with those working in routine occupations reporting the highest at 3.6 per cent

Estimates of smoking prevalence by occupational type using IHS data show that:

• those working in routine and manual occupations are twice as likely to currently smoke than those working in managerial and professional occupations

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Background notes

1. Integrated Household Survey

   The Integrated Household Survey is formed from ’core‘ questions on a number of ONS Household Surveys. Data for this release were obtained from the following survey months:

   IHS Component Surveys

   English Housing Survey1		Life Opportunities Survey	General Lifestyle Survey	Living Costs and Food Survey	Annual Population Survey2
   Apr-10	X		X	X	X
   May-10	X		X	X	X
   Jun-10		X	X	X	X
   Jul-10	X		X	X	X
   Aug-10	X		X	X	X
   Sep-10		X	X	X	X
   Oct-10	X		X	X	X
   Nov-10	X		X	X	X
   Dec-10		X	X	X	X
   Jan-11	X		X	X	X
   Feb-11	X		X	X	X
   Mar-11		X	X	X	X

   Table source: Office for National Statistics

   Table notes:

   1. The English Household Survey (EHS) runs for 2 months every quarter, followed by the Life Opportunities Survey (LOS) in the remaining month of each quarter. Further information on the IHS can be found on the ONS website.
      

   2. The Annual Population Survey includes waves 1 and 5 of the Labour Force Survey.

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2. Sexual identity

   While the Equality Act 2010 and relevant legislation in the past refers to sexual orientation, ONS has focused on collecting data on sexual identity. The sexual identity question measures how people see themselves and not how others see them.

   The sexual identity question was asked in both face to face and telephone interviews. During the face to face interviews, adults were asked; ‘Which of the options on this show card best describes how you think of yourself?’ For telephone interviews, a slightly different way of collecting the information was used; ‘I will now read out a list of terms that people use to describe how they think of themselves’. The list was read out to the respondents twice. On the second reading, the respondent had to say ‘stop’ when an appropriate term they identified with was read out. In both modes, the order in which the terms appeared or were read out was unique for each respondent to ensure confidentiality and no proxy interviews were allowed.

   Information regarding the development of the sexual identity question can be found on the ONS website.

3. Religious affiliation

   The National Statistics for Religion are currently provided by the APS and the Census. The Census estimates on religion are only available every ten years. The APS provides more timely estimates with annual datasets being produced every quarter from 2004.

   Caution should be used when comparing IHS data against census data as the questions differ, although they both ask about affiliation. The 2001 census question asks ‘What is your religion?’ The wording of the question can have considerable impact on the response because of the respondents’ understanding of the terminology used. Often, when data is collected using differently worded questions, the findings are not comparable. As well as questions on affiliation and practise, survey questions can also ask about belief and belonging.

   Religious belief includes beliefs typically expected to be held by followers of a religion and how important those beliefs are to a person’s life. Belonging can be interpreted as both loose self-identification and active or formal belonging to a religious group. As such, some people may respond that they have a religious affiliation but not that they belong to a religion.

4. Ethnic Group

   The National Statistics for Ethnic Group are currently provided by the APS and the Census. The Census estimates on ethnic group are only available every ten years. The APS provides more timely estimates with annual datasets being produced every quarter from 2004.

   In Northern Ireland, the respondents who state their ethnic group as White are not asked further detail (for example British, Other etc). So, for UK level outputs, it is not possible to break the ‘White’ group down into the more detailed level for people in Northern Ireland. The White group also includes ‘White’ ethnic minority groups.

5. Subjective Well-Being

   The ONS started, in April 2011, to measure what is termed ‘subjective well-being’ i.e. asking individuals to provide their own assessment of their own well-being. Four questions were added to the IHS from the start of April, the four questions are as follows:

   • overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
   • overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
   • overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?
   • overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
   (All questions use a 0 – 10 scale.)

   The first annual experimental dataset will be available from these questions in July 2012.

   Subjective well-being concerns peoples’ self-reported assessment of their own well-being. Survey questions of this nature aim to capture an individual’s well-being by measuring how people think and feel, for example, by asking about their life satisfaction, happiness, and psychological well-being.

6. Other Sources of Data

   Information on mental well-being, self-assessed health, smoking, sexual identity, religion and ethnicity for Scotland were published on 27th September in the 'Scottish Health Survey 2010'. This report and the Scottish Household Survey are recommended for users primarily interested in Scottish data without UK wide comparison. In Scotland the statistical contact for general health is Julie Ramsay (0131) 2442368 and for sexual identity, religion and ethnicity is Amy Wilson (0131) 2447571.

   The Welsh Government Statistical Directorate have published a headline 'Sexual Identity, Ethnicity and Religion - Experimental Results from the Integrated Household Survey, April 2010 to March 2011' to correspond with the release of data from ONS. Data on sexual identity by local authority is also available on the StatsWales website. More detailed data on self-assessed general health was published for Wales in the Welsh Health Survey 2010 report, and this is recommended for users primarily interested in Welsh data.

7. Access to the Data

   IHS data will be made available through the End User Licence at the UK Data Archive. The End User Licence is an agreement between the user and the University of Essex to provide users with the right to use the data held at the Data Archive .The End User Licence dataset can be accessed on the UK Data Archive (UKDA).

   A more detailed file can be accessed if Approved Researcher Status is sought and agreed. More information on the UK Data Archive and the Approved Researcher process are provided on the ONS website.

8. Experimental Statistics

   Experimental statistics are those which are in the testing phase, are not yet fully developed and have not been submitted for assessment to the UK Statistics Authority. In the first year of publication the IHS is designated as experimental statistics. Further information on experimental statistics can be found on the ONS website.

9. Quality

   Detailed information on sampling variability can be found on the ONS website, which provides sampling errors and confidence intervals for the estimates described in this Bulletin.

10. Publication Policy

    Details of the policy governing the release of new data are available from the Media Relations Office. A list of the names of those given pre-publication access to the contents of this bulletin is availableon the  ONS website (40.2 Kb Pdf) .

    National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference. © Crown copyright 2011

    You may use or re-use this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence, or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London, TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk.

11. Contact Details

    Telephone: 0845 604 1858

    Email: media.relations@ons.gov.uk

    Statistical Contact Details

    IHS Survey - Caroline Jones 01633 456734 or Dean Fletcher 01633 455716

    Sexual Identity, Religion and Ethnicity - Angela Potter-Collins 01633 455281

    Perceived  General Health - Chris White 01633 455865

12. Details of the policy governing the release of new data are available by visiting www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/index.html or from the Media Relations Office email: media.relations@ons.gsi.gov.uk

Statistical contacts