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The obvious source for such data are the records of the Inland Revenue who have income tax returns with home addresses and workplace addresses. Of course not all households are taxpayers so the Inland Revenue records are far from giving a full picture. But the main problem is that the IR guard these data jealously. The IR get monthly returns from employers for tax and national insurance contributions. Such data could be used to make monthly employment estimates, for example, and could be used to make estimates of employment by local authority areas. But the IR is not part of the ONS. The ONS don't have access and the data is not used in this kind of way. For monthly employment estimates we rely on a household survey!!! (i.e. the LFS) Tim Holt, Director of National Statistics, is a fairly dynamic character, and there is a muted plea for access by the ONS to administrative records in the Green Paper on Official Statistics. Getting access to this income data is probably the single most valuable resource the ONS could have. The word valuable is used deliberately. I understand that estimates of income level by local authority areas and wards are made by commercial organisitions. They take the socio-economic composition of wards at the last census and blow them up with current estimates of the income level of different socio-economic groups. No one really knows about the quality of the output, but i understand that it sells well!!! If anyone has any corrections to this account or any further information, I'd be very appreciative. Ray Thomas, Social Sciences, Open University Email: [log in to unmask] Tel: 01908-679081 Fax: 01908-880292 Post: 35 Passmore, Milton Keynes MK6 3DY -----Original Message----- From: Alex Scott-Samuel [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 1999 5:46 PM To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask] Subject: Income data Apologies for cross-posting Could I please have an authoritative answer as to why aggregated data on mean individual or household income - eg at local authority level - are not available in the UK? Surely there can't possibly be any genuine confidentiality considerations at that level of aggregation? Happy new year y'all Alex ****************************************************** Alex Scott-Samuel EQUAL (Equity in Health Research and Development Unit) Department of Public Health University of Liverpool Whelan Building Quadrangle Liverpool L69 3GB Tel (44)151-794-5569 Fax (44)151-794-5588 e-mail [log in to unmask] ******************************************************* %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%