Analysis and action on living standards
Household incomes and consumption patterns provide a lens on day-to-day living standards. We explore these measures here, with a specific focus on how changes to the tax and benefit system are affecting them, and the experience of poverty for different generations over the life course.
A body of evidence suggests that consumption – the amount spent by households on goods and services from week to week – is a more direct way of capturing people’s current standard of living than the disposable income measures that are more commonly used. The data in this section tracks trends in real consumption expenditure over time, comparing different cohorts at the same age.
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Financial years before 2006 and after 2013 (so 2001 refers to 2001-02). Consumption in each detailed spending category in each year is reweighted to figures from the National Accounts (on a per-household, per week basis), to correct for growing under-recording of consumption expenditure in surveys.
RF analysis of ONS, Living Costs & Food Survey
Financial years before 2006 and after 2013 (so 2001 refers to 2001-02), and data is smoothed using three-year rolling averages. Consumption in each detailed spending category in each year is reweighted to figures from the National Accounts (on a per-household, per week basis), to correct for growing under-recording of consumption expenditure in surveys.
Data is smoothed using three-year rolling averages. Consumption in each detailed spending category in each year is reweighted to figures from the National Accounts (on a per-household, per week basis), to correct for growing under-recording of consumption expenditure in surveys.
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