Wealth and Assets Survey, Waves 1-5 and Rounds 5-8, 2006-2022

<p> </p>
<p>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. Data are revised on a wave by wave basis, as a result of backwards imputation from the current wave's data. These revisions are due to improvements in the imputation methodology.</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Note from the WAS team - November 2023:</span></p><p>“The Office for National Statistics has identified a very small number of outlier cases present in the seventh round of the Wealth and Assets Survey covering the period April 2018 to March 2020. Our current approach is to treat cases where we have reasonable evidence to suggest the values provided for specific variables are outliers. This approach did not occur for two individuals for several variables involved in the estimation of their pension wealth. While we estimate any impacts are very small overall and median pension wealth and median total wealth estimates are unaffected, this will affect the accuracy of the breakdowns of the pension wealth within the wealthiest decile, and data derived from them. We are urging caution in the interpretation of more detailed estimates.”<br>
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<span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Survey Periodicity - "Waves" to "Rounds"</span><br>
</span>Due to the survey periodicity moving from “Waves” (July, ending in June two years later) to “Rounds” (April, ending in March two years later), interviews using the ‘Wave 6’ questionnaire started in July 2016 and were conducted for 21 months, finishing in March 2018. Data for round 6 covers the period April 2016 to March 2018. This comprises of the last three months of Wave 5 (April to June 2016) and 21 months of Wave 6 (July 2016 to March 2018). Round 5 and Round 6 datasets are based on a mixture of original wave-based datasets. Each wave of the survey has a unique questionnaire and therefore each of these round-based datasets are based on two questionnaires. While there may be some changes in the questionnaires, the derived variables for the key wealth estimates have not changed over this period. The aim is to collect the same data, though in some cases the exact questions asked may differ slightly. Detailed information on <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/methodologies/movingthewealthandassetssurveyontoafinancialyearsbasis" target="_blank">Moving the Wealth and Assets Survey onto a financial years’ basis</a> was published on the ONS website in July 2019. </p><p>A Secure Access version of the WAS, subject to more stringent access conditions, is available under SN 6709; it contains more detailed geographic variables than the EUL version. Users are advised to download the EUL version first (SN 7215) to see if it is suitable for their needs, before considering making an application for the Secure Access version.</p><p>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.</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Occupation data for 2021 and 2022 data files</span><br>
</p><p>The ONS have identified an issue with the collection of some
occupational data in 2021 and 2022 data files in a number of their
surveys. While they estimate any impacts will be small overall, this
will affect the
accuracy of the breakdowns of some detailed (four-digit Standard
Occupational
Classification (SOC)) occupations, and data derived from them. None of
ONS' headline
statistics, other than those directly sourced from occupational data,
are affected and you
can continue to rely on their accuracy. For further information on this
issue, please see:
<a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/occupationaldatainonssurveys">https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/occupationaldatainonssurveys</a>.</p><p>The data dictionary for round 8 person file is not available.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Latest edition information</span></p><p>For the 19th edition (February 2025), the round 8 data files and documentation have been added to the study. Values labels for variable "ILnUse01W4" in the file  "was_wave_4_person_eul_oct_2020" have also been updated.</p>

《财富与资产调查》（Wealth and Assets Survey, WAS）是一项纵向调查，旨在弥补现有家庭经济福祉数据的缺口，通过收集资产、储蓄与负债水平、退休储蓄规划、家庭或个体间财富分配格局，以及影响财务规划的各类因素等信息，填补相关数据空白。本次调查的抽样范围为大不列颠地区的私人家庭户，即不涵盖养老院、护理院、监狱、兵营或大学宿舍等居住机构中的人员，以及无家可归者。

WAS于2006年7月正式启动，首轮访谈周期为两年，至2008年6月结束。第一波调查共完成30595户家庭的访谈。上述家庭户在2008年7月至2010年6月期间再次受邀参与第二波访谈，最终有20170户家庭参与。第三波调查时段为2010年7月—2012年6月，第四波为2012年7月—2014年6月，第五波为2014年7月—2016年6月。由于对过往波次数据进行修订，官方最初发布的估算值与英国数据服务中心（UK Data Service）所持数据集的估算值之间可能存在细微差异。数据修订以波次为单位开展，源于基于当前波次数据进行的反向插补，此次修订旨在优化插补方法。

WAS团队2023年11月发布的说明：
“英国国家统计局（Office for National Statistics, ONS）在覆盖2018年4月至2020年3月时段的第七轮财富与资产调查中，发现了极少量异常值样本。目前我们的处理方式是，对有合理证据表明特定变量数值属于异常值的样本进行校正。但此前有两名个体在其养老金财富估算涉及的多个变量上未采用该处理流程。尽管我们估算整体影响极小，中位养老金财富与中位总财富估算值未受影响，但这会影响最富有的十分位群体内部养老金财富细分数据及其衍生数据的准确性。我们呼吁在解读更精细的估算值时保持谨慎。”

调查周期变更：从“波次（Waves，以7月启动、两年后的6月结束）”转为“轮次（Rounds，以4月启动、两年后的3月结束）”。使用“第六波”问卷的访谈于2016年7月启动，持续21个月，至2018年3月结束。第六轮数据的覆盖时段为2016年4月至2018年3月，其中包含第五波的最后三个月（2016年4月—6月）以及第六波的21个月数据（2016年7月—2018年3月）。第五轮与第六轮数据集基于原始波次数据集的混合样本。每一波调查均拥有专属问卷，因此这些轮次数据集均基于两份问卷。尽管问卷可能存在部分调整，但核心财富估算的衍生变量在此期间未发生变化。调查旨在收集相同的核心数据，不过部分具体提问可能存在细微差异。关于《将财富与资产调查调整为财年基准》的详细信息已于2019年7月在英国国家统计局官网发布，链接为https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/methodologies/movingthewealthandassetssurveyontoafinancialyearsbasis。

WAS的安全访问版本受更严格的访问条件约束，编号为SN 6709，其包含比最终用户许可（End User Licence, EUL）版本更详细的地理变量。建议用户先下载EUL版本（编号SN 7215）确认是否满足研究需求，再考虑申请安全访问版本。

更多信息与文档可在英国国家统计局官网的《财富与资产调查》页面查阅，链接为https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/methodologies/wealthandassetssurveywas。建议用户在开展分析前查阅该页面获取最新更新。

2021年与2022年数据文件的职业数据问题
英国国家统计局发现，其多项调查在2021年和2022年数据文件的部分职业数据收集环节存在问题。尽管我们估算整体影响较小，但这会影响部分精细分类（四位标准职业分类（Standard Occupational Classification, SOC））职业的细分数据及其衍生数据的准确性。英国国家统计局的核心统计数据（除直接源自职业数据的部分外）均未受影响，用户可继续信赖其准确性。关于该问题的更多详情，请参阅：https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/occupationaldatainonssurveys。

第八轮个人文件的数据字典尚未公开。

最新版本信息
在2025年2月发布的第19版中，本研究新增了第八轮数据文件与文档。同时，“was_wave_4_person_eul_oct_2020”文件中变量“ILnUse01W4”的取值标签已完成更新。

搜集汇总

背景与挑战

背景概述

该数据集是英国财富和资产调查（Wealth and Assets Survey）的多轮追踪数据，覆盖2006年至2022年，包含个人和家庭层面的财富与资产信息。数据集经过多次版本更新和变量调整，确保数据准确性和一致性，适用于研究财富分布、资产变化等社会经济问题。