Health and Social Surveys

Over the years health and social surveys have been carried out by a number of statistical bodies, including the General Register Office (GRO) and its successors the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Another of these bodies was the Government Social Survey, which began life as the Wartime Social Survey in 1940 and looked at issues such as food, shopping and health. It later merged with the GRO to form the OPCS.

Social studies have covered a wide range of topics from research into housing design, hospital organisation, transport, telephone services, wartime morale and dental health, to studies on smoking, alcohol consumption and fertility.

Four major surveys now carried out by the ONS are the Expenditure and Food Survey, the International Passenger Survey, the General Household Survey (GHS) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS).

One of the longest running surveys, The Expenditure and Food Survey, provides useful data on household expenditure and vital information on the effect of the government’s taxation on society.

The International Passenger Survey, which began in 1961, provides information for the tourist and transport industries and also helps inform population figures by showing people entering or leaving the country.

The annual GHS covers population and family information, housing, employment, education and health, and income.

The LFS was a biennial report created in 1973. It is now a quarterly survey and is an important source of information on unemployment as well as ethnic origin.

Health is another significant area of research, with Health Statistics Quarterly among the key publications for this area, and statistics are produced on issues such as mortality, birth, life expectancy and conception rates.

ONS statistics are still used today to help identify health causes in the same way Dr William Farr used the figures in the 1800s to understand more about diseases like cholera.

For example, modern day surveys have included research into the mortality patterns of those known to have been exposed to asbestos and those who have consumed high levels of alcohol.