DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-7215-9
title: Wealth and Assets Survey, Waves 1-5, 2006-2016
title: Wealth and Assets Survey, Waves 1-, 2006-
title: WAS; Household Assets Survey; HAS

description: &lt;p&gt;The &lt;i&gt;Wealth and Assets Survey&lt;/i&gt; (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).&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; 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.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; 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.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; Further information and documentation may be found on the ONS &lt;a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/methodologies/wealthandassetssurveywas" title="Wealth and Assets Survey"&gt;Wealth and Assets Survey&lt;/a&gt; webpage. Users are advised to the check the page for updates before commencing analysis.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;i&gt;Latest edition information:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br&gt;For the 9th edition (April 2019), data and documentation for Waves 2-5 were replaced with new versions. Changes have been made to rectify some historical data errors. Further information may be found at &lt;a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/wealthingreatbritainwave5/2014to2016"&gt;https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/wealthingreatbritainwave5/2014to2016&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;23 October 2019: Wave 1 data files temporarily removed &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br&gt;ONS have found some errors in the construction of the Wave 1 data files. Therefore, these have been temporarily removed from the download files. New Wave 1 files will be deposited in due course. If you have already downloaded them, the Wave 1 files should &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;not&lt;/span&gt; be used for analysis.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;