UK Veterans Survey using self-select and data linkage method |
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| Coordinator 1 | Dr Tansy Arthur (Non-member (at the moment)) |
Project Overview
The Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA) commissioned the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to carry out the Veterans’ Survey to support the aims of their veterans’ Strategy Action Plan, which is to make the UK the best place for veterans to live by 2028.
Stakeholders on the project included the Welsh Government, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Veterans’ Support Office. Charities and Veterans’ Organisations such as COBSEO: The Confederation of Service Charities supported the project.
Background Rationale
The UK Veterans’ Survey was the first project of its kind in the ONS. The research aim was to understand the unique experiences of the UK veteran population and their families living in the UK to help inform future policy created by the government.
Sample
A self-select, respondent driven sample was used for the veterans’ survey. Veterans are hard to reach, and a random household sample would risk targeting households that did not have veterans, incurring additional costs, and low response due to missing veterans’ households.
Survey Development and Operation
The survey was online first, with paper for those with no internet access. Questions were designed and tested collaboratively. The collection ran from Armistice Day (11 November 2022) for 12 weeks. The survey promotion was through veterans’ charities and organisations. The overall response rate was over 24,000 and well above the target of 13,000.
Data Linkage
Once the data was processed it was linked to the 2021 Census to measure representativeness. This showed a match of 98.4%, with differences in 2 regions (one higher, one lower), and fewer of the oldest veterans participating.
This paper will discuss the self-select survey operation enabled by UK veterans charities and organisations, the data linkage to the 2021 Census, and the published results.