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Annual Population Survey (APS)
Annual Population Survey (APS) data are available on Nomis from 25 August 2005. The APS is a new survey which includes the annual Labour Force Survey (LFS) plus a new sample boost aimed at achieving a minimum sample of 500 economically active adults in local authority districts in England. The size of the total APS sample is approximately 500,000 people.
The first APS data published are for the period January to December 2004. Subsequently, APS data will be published quarterly with each publication covering a year’s data. That is, data for April 2004 to March 2005 will be published in September 2005, data for July 2004 to June 2005 will be published in December 2005, etc.
Like the local area LFS data set, the APS data is published by local authority area. However, it contains an enhanced range of variables providing a greater level of detail about the resident household population of an area. In particular, more variables are provided on ethnic group, health and gender. User-defined tabulations can be requested from ONS's tabulation service at lfs.dataservice@ons.gov.uk .
At present, tables on qualifications are not available from the APS. Further processing of APS micro-data needs to be carried out before these tables can be published. They will be made available as soon as possible. Data on qualifications continue to be available from the annual Labour Force Survey data sets.
APS estimates replace those previously obtained from the local area LFS in local authority profiles. The full renge of APS data is accessed from the Annual Population Survey/Labour Force Survey theme in wizard or advanced queries.
The APS supercedes the existing two LFS data sets on Nomis: the local area LFS and the LFS - quarterly: four quarter averages. These will remain online for users wishing to access data for time-series but will no longer be updated.
Future Developments
Two further APS data sets will be added at later dates. One will provide information about the workplace population of an area, and the other will provide information on commuting patterns (i.e. travel-to-work flows between local authorities). Although workplace information was collected in the LFS, it was never previously published on Nomis.
Publication rules
The publication rules applied to the 2003/04 annual local area LFS data also apply to the APS data. Estimates will be presented together with approximate 95 per cent confidence intervals (in most cases). Some estimates will continue to be suppressed because they are considered to be disclosive, that is individuals could be identified from them. Details of the new rules are available from the link below:
Publication rules for the APS and 2003/04 Annual LFS data (pdf, 52Kb)
Reference sources
The methodology for the APS is the same as for the annual LFS (except that an extra English boost is included). The LFS user guide is available from the link below and Volume 6 covers local area data including information on sources, sample sizes and grossing factors, and sampling variability. It will be updated in due course to incorporate the APS.