Official Statistics

Annex A - Terms and Definitions

Published 29 July 2021

Applies to England

Details of the terms and definitions used in the Community Life Survey 2019/20.

1. Running the survey

• The Community Life Survey (CLS) is commissioned by DCMS. The fieldwork is conducted by Kantar. It is an annual household survey, conducted via self-completion questionnaire

• This release is based on self-completed questionnaires conducted either online or using paper questionnaires. The survey was completed between April 2020 and March 2021. The total sample size for the 2020/21 period was 10,917. Sample sizes for each breakdown can be found in the accompanying tables. All households sampled were invited to complete the survey online with the option to request a paper version. A targeted sample was also sent two paper questionnaires in their second reminder letter to encourage responses from those at risk of digital exclusion. In 2020/21, 2,130 people (20%) completed the paper version of the questionnaire and 8,787 (80%) completed the survey online. Due to space limitations in the paper questionnaire, not all questions from the online survey are included in the paper version and the source of each survey measure is referenced in the accompanying charts and tables. The survey continued through the pandemic and the survey mode was not seemingly impacted by this.

2. Data and Quality Assurance

• Stringent quality assurance procedures have been adopted for this statistical release. All data and analysis has been checked and verified by at least two different members of the DCMS analytical team to ensure the highest level of quality. Descriptive statistics have been calculated using complex samples analysis. Upper and lower estimates may vary slightly from analysis using other methodology or different software packages (SPSS was used for the published data and analysis).

3. Comparing estimates

• The upper and lower estimates presented in this report and in the accompanying tables have been calculated using a 95% confidence interval. This means that had the sample had been drawn 100 times, creating 100 confidence intervals, then 95 of these intervals would contain the true value. When the sample size is smaller, as is the case for certain groups, the confidence intervals are wider as we can be less certain that the individuals in the sample are representative of the population. This means that it is more difficult to draw inferences from the results.
• Statistical significance: Differences between groups are only reported on in this publication where they are statistically significant, i.e. where we can be confident that the differences seen in our sampled respondents are reflective of the population. A significant difference at the 95% level means we can be confident that if we carried out the same survey on different random samples of the population, 95 times out of 100 we would get similar findings. Where confidence intervals (to 1 decimal place) do not overlap, we consider this a significant difference.

4. Demographics

• Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) Quintile: The Index of Multiple Deprivation, commonly known as the IMD, is the official measure of relative deprivation for small areas in England. This is calculated using several measures such as income deprivation, crime and living environment deprivation. The Index of Multiple Deprivation ranks every small area in England from 1 (most deprived area) to 32,844 (least deprived area). In this publication, we have clustered these areas into ‘IMD Quintiles’ with 1 being the most deprived areas and 5 being the least deprived areas.

• Limiting long-term illness or disability: In this report, respondents are classified as having a limiting long-term illness or disability if they have any physical or mental health conditions or illnesses lasting, or which are expected to last for 12 months or more and their condition and/or illness reduces their ability to carry out day to day activities. This information is only available for those who completed the online version of the survey. This definition is consistent with the GSS harmonised definition.

5. Relevant research and statistics:

Information about volunteering has historically been collected in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport’s Taking Part survey. This asks about volunteering in a different way to CLS so estimates can vary. CLS should be used for headline measures of volunteering, while Taking Part can be used to understand volunteering in the DCMS sectors. More information can be found on the Taking Part statistical release page. Please note that 2020/21 was the last year of fieldwork under the existing Taking Part contract. DCMS have therefore awarded a new contract for an interim social survey measuring engagement in DCMS sectors for adults in England. Further information can be found on the DCMS website

The responsible statistician for this release is Aleister Skinner. For enquiries on this release, please contact evidence@dcms.gov.uk.