Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Taking Part survey collects data on many aspects of leisure, culture and sport in England, as well as an in-depth range of socio-demographic information on respondents. The survey is commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in partnership with three of its non-departmental public bodies (Sport England, Arts Council England and English Heritage). The survey was first commissioned in 2005 as a face-to-face household survey of adults (16+) in England. Since then it has run annually and has also been developed to include further elements, including a child element and a longitudinal element. Further information can be found on the Gov.uk Taking Part web pages.
Taking Part, 2008-2009, also known as Year 4 of the continuous survey, includes 14,452 interviews conducted with adults (aged 16 or over) and 2,622 child interviews (1,146 of these were conducted with children aged 11-15 and 1,476 of these were conducted with a relevant adult who provided information on a child aged 5-10). The survey used face-to-face computer assisted personal interviews, which took 45 minutes, on average, to complete. The sample for this survey had been randomly selected from the small-users postcode address file and only those from private households in England were included. No geographical restrictions were placed on the location of the engagement, although it must have been for the purpose of recreation or leisure, including voluntary work. Taking Part excluded involvement in sectors where the prime motivation was paid work or academic study. The exceptions to this were attendance at historic environment sites which included visits made for academic study, and sports participation which excludes volunteering, teaching, coaching and refereeing. A Special Licence (SL) access version of this study is held under SN 7343, which contains additional detailed geographic variables (Local Authorities; ACORN Group; ACORN Category; ONS Urban Rural Classification). Users are advised to first obtain the standard EUL version (this study, SN 6530) to see if they are sufficient for their research requirements, as the SL data have more restrictive access conditions.
Main Topics:
Main topics covered by the survey include: the arts, museums and galleries, libraries, archives, heritage, sport, social capital, engagement in various sectors whilst growing up, volunteering, broadcasting, gambling, the Olympics, licensing laws, and demographics.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Face-to-face interview
