Wealth and Assets Survey, Waves 1-5, 2006-2016: Secure Access

The <I>Wealth and Assets Survey</I> (WAS) is a longitudinal survey, which aims to address gaps identified in data about the economic well-being of households by gathering information on level of assets, savings and debt; saving for retirement; how wealth is distributed among households or individuals; and factors that affect financial planning. Private households in Great Britain were sampled for the survey (meaning that people in residential institutions, such as retirement homes, nursing homes, prisons, barracks or university halls of residence, and also homeless people were not included).<br>
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The WAS commenced in July 2006, with a first wave of interviews carried out over two years, to June 2008. Interviews were achieved with 30,595 households at Wave 1. Those households were approached again for a Wave 2 interview between July 2008 and June 2010, and 20,170 households took part. Wave 3 covered July 2010 - June 2012, wave 4 covered July 2012 - June 2014 and Wave 5 covered July 2014 - June 2016. Revisions to previous waves' data mean that small differences may occur between originally published estimates and estimates from the datasets held by the UK Data Service. These revisions are due to improvements in the imputation methodology.<br>
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Further information and documentation may be found on the ONS <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/methodologies/wealthandassetssurveywas" title = "Wealth and Assets Survey">Wealth and Assets Survey</a> webpage. Users are advised to the check the page for updates before commencing analysis.<br>
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<b>Secure Access WAS data</b><br>
The Secure Access version of the WAS includes additional, detailed geographical variables not included in the End User Licence (EUL) version (SN 7215). These include:<ul><li>Wards</li><li>Parliamentary Constituency Areas for Wave 1 only</li><li>Census Output Areas</li><li>Lower and Middle Layer Super Output Areas</li><li>Local Education Authorities</li></ul>Prospective users of the Secure Access version of the WAS will need to fulfil additional requirements, including completion of face-to-face training, and agreement to the Secure Access User Agreement and Licence Compliance Policy, in order to obtain permission to use that version (see 'Access' section below). Users are therefore strongly encouraged to download the EUL version (SN 7215) to see if it contains sufficient detail for their needs, before considering making an application for the Secure Access version.<br>
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Edition information: For the fourth edition (August 2018), data files and documentation for wave 5, and revised data files for wave 4 have been included in the study.<br>
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