Scottish Household Survey 2021: methodology and fieldwork outcomes

Footnotes

1. This must be a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented or who is otherwise responsible for the accommodation. The Highest Income Householder (HIH) is taken as the household reference person for the first part of the interview. In households with more than one householder, the person with the highest income is taken as the household reference person. If householders have exactly the same income, the older or oldest is taken as the household reference person.

2. The selection of the random adult is slightly more complex than this. The random adult needs to be one of the adult household members who is aged 16 years or over, is normally resident during term time (if a student) or has not been living outside of the household for 6 months or more.

3. NS-SEC can also be automatically assigned to SEG codes, which allow a degree of backward compatibility with Socio-economic Group.

4. The target population of the old SHCS excludes "dwellings without foundations". So, for example, mobile homes would not be eligible for the physical survey. However, these dwellings are eligible for the social survey. In order to work around this, such dwellings are still included in the social interview but are then streamed past questions on surveyor appointments, thus avoiding surveyors being called out to static caravans or houseboats.