The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a major survey series, which aims to provide data that can produce reliable estimates at local authority level. Key topics covered in the survey include education, employment, health and ethnicity. The APS comprises key variables from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) (held at the UK Data Archive under GN 33246), all its associated LFS boosts and the APS boost. Thus, the APS combines results from five different sources: the LFS (waves 1 and 5); the English Local Labour Force Survey (LLFS), the Welsh Labour Force Survey (WLFS), the Scottish Labour Force Survey (SLFS) and the Annual Population Survey Boost Sample (APS(B) - however, this ceased to exist at the end of December 2005, so APS data from January 2006 onwards will contain all the above data apart from APS(B)). Users should note that the LLFS, WLFS, SLFS and APS(B) are not held separately at the Archive. For further detailed information about methodology, users should consult the Labour Force Survey User Guide, selected volumes of which have been included with the APS documentation for reference purposes (see 'Documentation' table below).
The APS aims to provide enhanced annual data for England, covering a target sample of at least 510 economically active persons for each Unitary Authority (UA)/Local Authority District (LAD) and at least 450 in each Greater London Borough. In combination with local LFS boost samples such as the WLFS and SLFS, the survey provides estimates for a range of indicators down to Local Education Authority (LEA) level across the United Kingdom.
End User Licence and Special Licence APS data
Users should note that there are two versions of each APS 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:- age: including single year of age, year and month of birth, age completed full-time education and age obtained highest qualification, age of oldest dependent child and age of youngest dependent child
- family unit and household: including a number of variables concerning the number of dependent children in the family according to their ages, relationship to head of household and relationship to head of family
- nationality and country of origin
- geography: including county, unitary/local authority, place of work, Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics 2 (NUTS2) and NUTS3 regions, and whether lives and works in same local authority district
- health: including main health problem, and current and past health problems
- education and apprenticeship: including numbers and subjects of various qualifications and variables concerning apprenticeships
- industry: including industry, industry class and industry group for main, second and last job, and industry made redundant from
- occupation: including 4-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) for main, second and last job and job made redundant from
- system variables: including week number when interview took place and number of households at address
The EUL version contains less detailed variables. For example, the lowest geography is Government Office Region, only banded age is available, only 3-digit SOC is available for main, second and last job, and only industry division for main, second and last job. Users are advised to first obtain the standard EUL version of the data to see if they are sufficient for the research requirements.
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. In order to help users choose the correct dataset, 'Special Licence Access' has been added to the dataset titles for the SL versions of the data.
Annual Population Survey Reweighting 2011:
The APS data back to 2009 are currently being reweighted to 2011 population figures and are in the process of being redeposited at the Archive. Users should note that datasets prior to 2009 will remain weighted to earlier population figures; please check the individual datasets for details.
APS Subjective Well-Being Datasets
During 2012, the ONS published APS data aimed at providing initial estimates of subjective well-being. These data are currently considered experimental statistics, published at an early stage to involve users as they undergo further testing and development. Further information about this initiative may be found on the ONS Measuring Subjective Well-being in the UK webpage.
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The Special Licence version of the APS October 2007 - September 2008 is held at the UK Data Archive under SN 6170.
For the third edition (March 2012), the data have been weighted to 2010 population figures. The new weighting variable is PWTA10 (APS Person weight). In addition, variables age, extfu, famunit, hout, hprmb, hrpid, nurse and redcls have been added and variables adlear7y, adlearn8, ageband, cymu, thisqtr and wkag1664 removed.
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Main Topics:
Topics covered include: household composition and relationships, housing tenure, nationality, ethnicity and residential history, employment and training (including government schemes), workplace and location, job hunting, educational background and qualifications. Many of the variables included in the survey are the same as those in the LFS.
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