DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-9335-4
title: Living Costs and Food Survey, 2022-2023
title: Living Costs and Food Survey, 2001-
title: LCF

description: &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Background&lt;/i&gt;:&lt;br&gt;
A household food consumption and expenditure survey has been conducted each year in Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) since 1940. At that time the &lt;i&gt;National Food Survey&lt;/i&gt; (NFS) covered a sample drawn solely from urban working-class households, but this was extended to a fully demographically representative sample in 1950. From 1957 onwards the &lt;i&gt;Family Expenditure Survey&lt;/i&gt; (FES) provided information on all household expenditure patterns including food expenditure, with the NFS providing more detailed information on food consumption and expenditure. The NFS was extended to cover Northern Ireland from 1996 onwards. In April 2001 these surveys were combined to form the &lt;i&gt;Expenditure and Food Survey&lt;/i&gt; (EFS), which completely replaced both series. From January 2008, the EFS became known as the &lt;i&gt;Living Costs and Food&lt;/i&gt; (LCF) module of the &lt;i&gt;Integrated Household Survey&lt;/i&gt; (IHS). As a consequence of this change, the questionnaire was altered to accommodate the insertion of a core set of questions, common to all of the separate modules which together comprised the IHS. Some of these core questions are simply questions which were previously asked in the same or a similar format on all of the IHS component surveys. For further information on the LCF questionnaire, see Volume A of the LCF 2008 User Guide, held with SN 6385. Further information about the LCF, including links to published reports based on the survey, may be found by searching for 'Living Costs and Food Survey' on the &lt;a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/" target="_blank"&gt;ONS&lt;/a&gt; website. Further information on the NFS and Living Costs and Food Module of the IHS can be found by searching for 'Family Food' on the &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/" title="GOV.UK"&gt;GOV.UK&lt;/a&gt; website.&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;i&gt;History&lt;/i&gt;:&lt;br&gt;
The LCF (then EFS) was the result of more than two years' development work to bring together the FES and NFS; both survey series were well-established and important sources of information for government and the wider community, and had charted changes and patterns in spending and food consumption since the 1950s. Whilst the NFS and FES series are now finished, users should note that previous data from both series are still available from the UK Data Archive, under GNs 33071 (NFS) and 33057 (FES). 
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&lt;i&gt;Purpose of the LCF&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br&gt;
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has overall project management and financial responsibility for the LCF, while the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) sponsors the food data element. As with the FES and NFS, the LCF continues to be primarily used to provide information for the &lt;i&gt;Retail Prices Index&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;National Accounts&lt;/i&gt; estimates of household expenditure, analysis of the effect of taxes and benefits, and trends in nutrition. The results are multi-purpose, however, providing an invaluable supply of economic and social data. The merger of the two surveys also brings benefits for users, as a single survey on food expenditure removes the difficulties of reconciling data from two sources.

&lt;i&gt;Design and methodology&lt;/i&gt;
The design of the LCF is based on the old FES, although the use of new processing software by the data creators has resulted in a dataset which differs from the previous structure. The most significant change in terms of reporting expenditure, however, is the introduction of the &lt;i&gt;European Standard Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose&lt;/i&gt; (COICOP), in place of the codes previously used. An additional level of hierarchy has been developed to improve the mapping to the previous codes. The LCF was conducted on a financial year basis from 2001, then moved to a calendar year basis from January 2006 (to complement the IHS) until 2015-16, when the financial year survey was reinstated at the request of users. Therefore, whilst SN 5688 covers April 2005 - March 2006, SN 5986 covers January-December 2006. Subsequent years cover January-December until 2014. SN 8210 returns to the financial year survey and currently covers April 2015 - March 2016.
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&lt;i&gt;Northern Ireland sample&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Users should note that, due to funding constraints, from January 2010 the Northern Ireland (NI) sample used for the LCF was reduced to a sample proportionate to the NI population relative to the UK.&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;i&gt;Family Food database:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br&gt;
'Family Food' is an annual publication which provides detailed statistical information on purchased quantities, expenditure and nutrient intakes derived from both household and eating out food and drink. Data is collected for a sample of households in the United Kingdom using self-reported diaries of all purchases, including food eaten out, over a two week period. Where possible quantities are recorded in the diaries but otherwise estimated. Energy and nutrient intakes are calculated using standard nutrient composition data for each of some 500 types of food. Current estimates are based on data collected in the Family Food Module of the LCFS. Further information about the LCF food databases can be found on the GOV.UK &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-food-statistics" title="Family Food Statistics"&gt;Family Food Statistics&lt;/a&gt; web pages.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;

&lt;i&gt;Secure Access version&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br&gt;
A Secure Access version of the LCF from 2006 onwards is available from the UK Data Archive under SN 7047, subject to stringent access conditions. The Secure Access version includes variables that are not included in the standard End User Licence (EUL) version, including geographical variables with detail below Government Office Region, to postcode level; urban/rural area indicators; other sensitive variables; raw diary information files (derived variables are available in the EUL) and the family expenditure codes files. Users are strongly advised to check whether the EUL version is sufficient for their needs before considering an application for the Secure Access version.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Occupation data for 2021 and 2022 data files&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;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:
&lt;a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/occupationaldatainonssurveys" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/occupationaldatainonssurveys&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Latest edition information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For the fourth edition (July 2025), an updated version of the DEFRA Family Food database has been added to the study. Tables covering a065p (Age of HRP by range - anonymised), a069p (Type of household - Anonymised) and a094 (NS-SEC 12 Class of HRP) have been added, and the variable EqIncDOp (Equivalised income (OECD Scale) - anonymised) has been added to the EFShousehold table. A guide to the additional variables has been added to the documentation.&lt;/p&gt;