New Survey of London Life and Labour, 1929-1931

The main aims of the research project were to computerise all the surviving records of the New Survey of London Life and Labour (1929-31), and to begin economic analysis of the data obtained. The specific objectives were:<br> 1. To input the data in a manner which would preserve virtually all the information presented on the cards, and to ensure that the machine readable records replicate that information as faithfully as possible.<br> 2. To organise the data in the form of a relational database<br> 3. To check the data against the original cards, to code some of the variables (e.g. labour market status), and to correct inconsistencies in the original records.<br> 4. To undertake separate coding sub-projects for occupations, birthplaces and street quality.<br> 5. To document the results obtained in the form of a codebook and a companion paper to explain the methods employed in the computerisation.<br> <br> An earlier project was carried out in the USA in 1983-1986, based on the same data, involved computerisation of a 10% sample of the original source, plus a 50% sample of the households containing at least one unemployed person. That study is available from ICPSR - see <a href="http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/DSDR/studies/8539" title="New Survey of London Life and Labor, 1929-1931">New Survey of London Life and Labor, 1929-1931</a>. Apart from the fact that they are both based on the same data source, there is no other connection between the two projects.<br> <br>