- Welcome
- Important notice
- About the author
- About this site
- Site guide + Search box
- Dedications
- Acknowledgments
- My personal pantheon (of the great and the good in survey research)
- Recent and planned activities
- Textbooks for Research Methods and Data Analysis
- 1: Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
- 1a: Statistical concepts and methods
- 1b: Teaching with Survey Data
- 1c: Developing research projects using survey data
- 1d: Workshop and presentations for ASSESS (SPSS users in Europe)
- 2: Survey Research Practice
- 2a: Survey Research Methodology, Practice and Training
- 2b: Major survey series
- 3: Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)
- 4: Survey Unit, Social Science Research Council (UK)
- 5a: Polytechnic of North London (1976-1992)
- 5b: Survey Research Unit (1978-1992)
- Village life in Normandy
- Contact
- Origins of the British Crime Survey
- British Crime Survey
British Social Attitudes: Exploring the SPSS files
[New page 14 March 2016: last updated 3 November 2018]
New guide added 22 October 2018
Downloading British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS) data from the UK Data Service (pdf, 13pp, 914kb)
New article added 28 September 2018
BSAS 2016: On the Trail of the Lonesome Nine(s) (pdf, 24pp, 648kb)
Important notice
Newly implemented European General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) mean that hyperlinks in my tutorials to files previously downloadable from this site will cause type 404 errors. The links have been disabled and all tutorials are currently being rewritten to redirect users to the appropriate page at the UK Data Service (UKDS).
Data safeguarding requirements mean that no actual data can be uploaded to this site from the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS).
Instead users must check the series list of available files and click the Access link to request downloads of individual source files direct from UKDS.
See: Downloading British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS) data from the UK Data Service
From October 2018, users wishing to download and use data from the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS) must
1: have (or open) an account at UKDS
2: be logged in to their UKDS account
3: be registered for use of BSAS data
Here is an example, using the 1989 survey, of how to access data : the same process applies to the data files for all other years.
Exemplar: British Social Attitudes Survey 1989 (UKDS: SN 2723)
Citation to be included in all publications:
Social and Community Planning Research. (1990). British Social Attitudes Survey, 1989. [data collection].
UK Data Service. SN: 2723, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-2723-1
For a detailed work-through of the download process for the 1989 survey, see:
Locating and downloading BSAS 1989 [new item 3 Nov 2018]
The data arrive from UKDS to your Download folder in a *.zip file.
For a detailed work-through of the extraction process, see
Extraction of files for BSAS 1989 [new item 3 Nov 2018]
For many years I have made intensive use of data from the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS) both for research (all waves) and, until 1992, in classroom teaching. Partly with a view to updating the examples and exercises in my tutorials on this site, and partly to pursue my interest in survey indicators of quality of life and psychological well-being, I have been exploring the SPSS files distributed by UKDS for all waves. In order to allow me time to prepare teaching materials well in advance of courses starting, (and several months before the BSA reports were published and the data released) the late Professor Sir Roger Jowell kindly gave me early access to the raw data files for each of the 1983 to 1989 waves. See: Introduction to Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
In those days raw data were provided as 80-column card images on magnetic tape and had to be input to SPSS using complex Fortran FORMAT statements. Later releases of SPSS used DATA LIST which is much easier to understand and use. Questionnaires were clearly marked up for data layout and punching on to 80-column Hollerith cards or direct into 80-column card images. This made it easy to work on the data with questionnaires to hand, especially when using the positional variable naming convention developed at the SSRC Survey Unit as taught on my Survey Analysis Workshop course, in which question numbers always appeared at the beginning of variable labels.
The BSAS has always used mnemonic variable names so that the same name can be used for the same variable regardless of the wave(s) in which questions appear. However, for teaching purposes, the positional convention was much easier to understand and use when working on the data for an individual wave.
(For a detailed explanation see: 1.3.1 Conventions for Naming Variables in SPSS)
Later waves of BSAS data were later collected via CAPI/BLAISE, edited into data files and input direct to SPSS. At least the variable labels in the early versions still contained question numbers (even if these were at the end of very long labels). Nowadays there are no facsimile questionnaires as such and most of the variable labels have no question numbers in them either. This makes a teacher's work significantly harder and, for users, navigation of SPSS files complex and frustrating, especially when relying on the GUI and scrolling through variable names or variable labels using SPSS dialog boxes.
For detailed commentaries on the ease of use and understanding of the SPSS saved files distributed by UKDS for the 2011 wave, see Commentary on SPSS file for British Social Attitudes 2011 and Notes on British Social Attitudes 2004 teaching data set (as used by Marsh and Elliott, 2008).
Scale to measure (anti-) "welfare-ism"
My first venture using the 2014 data is Exploring British Social Attitudes 2014. This comprises a set of technical notes based on initial exploration of the data for attitudes to social welfare in the SPSS file distributed by UKDS (Essex). The notes are written from the perspective of someone wishing to use data from real surveys for teaching data management and analysis in a hands-on environment using SPSS.
They do not discuss the substantive topic of social welfare, but you can download the separate chapter by Peter Taylor-Gooby (Kent) and Eleanor Taylor (Natcen) Benefits and Welfare: Long-term trends or short-term reactions? The welfare scale (welfare2) is not used in the chapter, but there is a table of the responses over the years to the component items.
My notes deal more with the mechanics of SPSS and file management in constructing the scales. Scales to measure political attitudes such as "politically left-right" (leftrigh) "libertarianism-authoritarianism" (libauth) and "welfareism" (welfare2) have been used in all waves since 1990. (See British Social Attitudes 28 Appendix I pages 193-194) However, these scales contain a few surprises.
(See SPSS files for British Social Attitudes 32 (2011): a cautionary tale for the unwary which demonstrates the importance of checking variables for missing values before using them to generate scores.)
I have prepared a Technical Commentary on the data used in the 2016 wave (2018 report) for three measures of political attitudes ("politically left-right" (leftrigh) "libertarianism-authoritarianism" (libauth) and "welfareism" (welfare2) . It will be available once I have authorisation to use the publicity announcement for, and the contents list of, the BSA_35_report.
British Social Attitudes: Cumulative file 1983 onwards
Attempting analyses across waves became increasingly frustrating as I encountered dozens of incompatibilities and inconsistencies, not to mention universally incomplete and/or incorrect specifications of measurement levels, missing values and value labels. These could well be the result of automatic archiving software or of the "heuristic" assignment of measurement levels in SPSS. Regardless of the cause, these make cross-wave analysis very difficult, if not impossible. Accordingly I set myself the task of generating, as a resource for teachers, students and researchers, a single cumulative SPSS file for all waves from 1983 onwards. One colleague described this undertaking as "Herculean": he was right!
The beta version of the cumulative file to 2014 was completed on 20 June 2016. The 2015 and 2016 waves have now been added to the cumulative file, but I still need to check for occasional glitches. Details of how to download and convert the files are on page British Social Attitudes: Making files from different years compatible
The various processes are described on page British Social Attitudes 1983 - 2016 Cumulative SPSS file,
New guide added 22 October 2018
Downloading British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS) data from the UK Data Service (pdf, 13pp, 914kb)
New article added 28 September 2018
BSAS 2016: On the Trail of the Lonesome Nine(s) (pdf, 24pp, 648kb)
Important notice
Newly implemented European General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) mean that hyperlinks in my tutorials to files previously downloadable from this site will cause type 404 errors. The links have been disabled and all tutorials are currently being rewritten to redirect users to the appropriate page at the UK Data Service (UKDS).
Data safeguarding requirements mean that no actual data can be uploaded to this site from the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS).
Instead users must check the series list of available files and click the Access link to request downloads of individual source files direct from UKDS.
See: Downloading British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS) data from the UK Data Service
From October 2018, users wishing to download and use data from the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS) must
1: have (or open) an account at UKDS
2: be logged in to their UKDS account
3: be registered for use of BSAS data
Here is an example, using the 1989 survey, of how to access data : the same process applies to the data files for all other years.
Exemplar: British Social Attitudes Survey 1989 (UKDS: SN 2723)
Citation to be included in all publications:
Social and Community Planning Research. (1990). British Social Attitudes Survey, 1989. [data collection].
UK Data Service. SN: 2723, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-2723-1
For a detailed work-through of the download process for the 1989 survey, see:
Locating and downloading BSAS 1989 [new item 3 Nov 2018]
The data arrive from UKDS to your Download folder in a *.zip file.
For a detailed work-through of the extraction process, see
Extraction of files for BSAS 1989 [new item 3 Nov 2018]
For many years I have made intensive use of data from the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS) both for research (all waves) and, until 1992, in classroom teaching. Partly with a view to updating the examples and exercises in my tutorials on this site, and partly to pursue my interest in survey indicators of quality of life and psychological well-being, I have been exploring the SPSS files distributed by UKDS for all waves. In order to allow me time to prepare teaching materials well in advance of courses starting, (and several months before the BSA reports were published and the data released) the late Professor Sir Roger Jowell kindly gave me early access to the raw data files for each of the 1983 to 1989 waves. See: Introduction to Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
In those days raw data were provided as 80-column card images on magnetic tape and had to be input to SPSS using complex Fortran FORMAT statements. Later releases of SPSS used DATA LIST which is much easier to understand and use. Questionnaires were clearly marked up for data layout and punching on to 80-column Hollerith cards or direct into 80-column card images. This made it easy to work on the data with questionnaires to hand, especially when using the positional variable naming convention developed at the SSRC Survey Unit as taught on my Survey Analysis Workshop course, in which question numbers always appeared at the beginning of variable labels.
The BSAS has always used mnemonic variable names so that the same name can be used for the same variable regardless of the wave(s) in which questions appear. However, for teaching purposes, the positional convention was much easier to understand and use when working on the data for an individual wave.
(For a detailed explanation see: 1.3.1 Conventions for Naming Variables in SPSS)
Later waves of BSAS data were later collected via CAPI/BLAISE, edited into data files and input direct to SPSS. At least the variable labels in the early versions still contained question numbers (even if these were at the end of very long labels). Nowadays there are no facsimile questionnaires as such and most of the variable labels have no question numbers in them either. This makes a teacher's work significantly harder and, for users, navigation of SPSS files complex and frustrating, especially when relying on the GUI and scrolling through variable names or variable labels using SPSS dialog boxes.
For detailed commentaries on the ease of use and understanding of the SPSS saved files distributed by UKDS for the 2011 wave, see Commentary on SPSS file for British Social Attitudes 2011 and Notes on British Social Attitudes 2004 teaching data set (as used by Marsh and Elliott, 2008).
Scale to measure (anti-) "welfare-ism"
My first venture using the 2014 data is Exploring British Social Attitudes 2014. This comprises a set of technical notes based on initial exploration of the data for attitudes to social welfare in the SPSS file distributed by UKDS (Essex). The notes are written from the perspective of someone wishing to use data from real surveys for teaching data management and analysis in a hands-on environment using SPSS.
They do not discuss the substantive topic of social welfare, but you can download the separate chapter by Peter Taylor-Gooby (Kent) and Eleanor Taylor (Natcen) Benefits and Welfare: Long-term trends or short-term reactions? The welfare scale (welfare2) is not used in the chapter, but there is a table of the responses over the years to the component items.
My notes deal more with the mechanics of SPSS and file management in constructing the scales. Scales to measure political attitudes such as "politically left-right" (leftrigh) "libertarianism-authoritarianism" (libauth) and "welfareism" (welfare2) have been used in all waves since 1990. (See British Social Attitudes 28 Appendix I pages 193-194) However, these scales contain a few surprises.
(See SPSS files for British Social Attitudes 32 (2011): a cautionary tale for the unwary which demonstrates the importance of checking variables for missing values before using them to generate scores.)
I have prepared a Technical Commentary on the data used in the 2016 wave (2018 report) for three measures of political attitudes ("politically left-right" (leftrigh) "libertarianism-authoritarianism" (libauth) and "welfareism" (welfare2) . It will be available once I have authorisation to use the publicity announcement for, and the contents list of, the BSA_35_report.
British Social Attitudes: Cumulative file 1983 onwards
Attempting analyses across waves became increasingly frustrating as I encountered dozens of incompatibilities and inconsistencies, not to mention universally incomplete and/or incorrect specifications of measurement levels, missing values and value labels. These could well be the result of automatic archiving software or of the "heuristic" assignment of measurement levels in SPSS. Regardless of the cause, these make cross-wave analysis very difficult, if not impossible. Accordingly I set myself the task of generating, as a resource for teachers, students and researchers, a single cumulative SPSS file for all waves from 1983 onwards. One colleague described this undertaking as "Herculean": he was right!
The beta version of the cumulative file to 2014 was completed on 20 June 2016. The 2015 and 2016 waves have now been added to the cumulative file, but I still need to check for occasional glitches. Details of how to download and convert the files are on page British Social Attitudes: Making files from different years compatible
The various processes are described on page British Social Attitudes 1983 - 2016 Cumulative SPSS file,