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Report

Gambling Survey for Great Britain - Year 2 (2024), wave 2 report: Official statistics

Gambling Survey for Great Britain - Year 2 (2024), wave 2 report

  1. Contents
  2. Response to the survey

Response to the survey

Address-level response rates

Table A.1: (Address-level response) summarises the address-level response rates.

In total, 18,778 addresses were issued. In remote surveys (that is where participants complete the survey independently without any involvement from an interviewer), no information is known about the reason for non-response in individual addresses. However, it was assumed that around 9 percent of addresses in the sample (1,690) were not residential and were therefore ineligible to complete the survey1.

In total, 3,181 addresses were productive. The adjusted address-level response rate, that is the proportion of eligible addresses where a questionnaire was completed by at least one adult, was 19 percent (lower than the target of 22 percent). There was no response from 13,893 addresses and a further 14 addresses had an individual contact the office to say they did not wish or were unable to take part.

Table A.1: Address-level response rates

Table A.1: Address-level response
Response of issued addresses Total addresses (number) Total addresses (percentage) Total eligible (percentage)
Issued addresses 18,778 100% Not applicable
Assumed ineligible 1,690 9% Not applicable
Assumed eligible (residential addresses) 17,088 91% 100%
Refusal or unable to take part 14 0% 0%
No response 13,893 74% 81%
Productive addresses 3,181 17% 19%

Table A.2: (Address-level response, by country and Government Office Region) shows the breakdown of the issued sample in England, Scotland, and Wales, and English regions and the household response rate in each country and region. In total, 86 percent of the issued addresses were in England, 9 percent in Scotland and 5 percent in Wales. Household response rate was 19 percent in England and Scotland and 17 percent in Wales. In English regions2, the highest response rates were achieved in the South West (24 percent) and South East (21 percent) and the lowest in London (15 percent).

Table A.2: Address-level response, by country and Government office region

Table A.2 Address-level response, by country and government office region
Country/Government office region Total issued addresses (number) Total issued addresses (percentage) Total assumed eligible addresses (number) Total assumed eligible addresses (percentage) Total productive addresses (number) Household response rate (percentage)
England 16,110 86% 14,660 86% 2,737 19%
North East 812 4% 739 4% 125 17%
North West 2,178 12% 1,982 12% 330 17%
Yorkshire and the Humber 1,592 8% 1,449 8% 269 19%
East Midlands 1,392 7% 1,267 7% 259 20%
West Midlands 1,646 9% 1,498 9% 249 17%
East of England 1,788 10% 1,627 10% 313 19%
London 2,407 13% 2,190 13% 327 15%
South East 2,605 14% 2,371 14% 502 21%
South West 1,690 9% 1,538 9% 363 24%
Scotland 1,735 9% 1,579 9% 299 19%
Wales 933 5% 849 5% 145 17%
All addresses 18,778 100% 17,088 100% 3181 19%

Individual-level response rates

Following the process of removing duplicate responses3, cases deemed to have completed the online questionnaire too quickly to have properly engaged with the questions and cases above the maximum 2 completions per household4, it was assumed that all responses in the dataset were from 4,657 unique individuals who had completed the questionnaire.

In total, 45 percent of the responding unweighted sample were male, and 55 percent were female, as shown in Table A.3: (Individual-level response, by sex and age). This under-representation of males is similar to that seen in the latest published results for other surveys with the same completion modes, for example, the British Social Attitudes (BSA) 2022 survey - BSA 40 Technical details (natcen.ac.uk) (opens in new tab)(pdf). In total, 44 percent of the BSA 2022 unweighted main sample were male and 56 percent female.

Those in the youngest age group were the least likely to take part: 6 percent of responding adults were aged 18 to 24, whereas this age group makes up 10 percent of the adult population of Great Britain. Conversely, 18 percent of responding adults were aged 65 to 74, whereas this group makes up 12 percent of the population. (Table A.3: Individual-level response, by age and sex).

This difference in taking part was particularly pronounced for male participants: 5 percent of the male sample were aged 18 to 24 years (this age-sex group makes up 11 percent of the male adult population of Great Britain). The equivalent proportions for females aged 18 to 24 years were 7 percent and 11 percent. The national percentages are based on the 2022 mid-year population estimates for Great Britain: Estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) (opens in a new tab).

Table A.3: Individual-level response, by sex and age

Table A.3 Individual-level response, by sex and age
Age group (years) Total participants: male (percentage) Total participants: female (percentage) Total participants: all (percentage) Total Great Britain population: adult males (percentage) Total Great Britain population: adult females (percentage) Total Great Britain population: all adults (percentage)
18 to 24 5% 7% 6% 11% 11% 10%
25 to 34 13% 17% 15% 17% 17% 17%
35 to 44 15% 17% 16% 17% 17% 16%
45 to 54 15% 14% 14% 16% 16% 16%
55 to 64 18% 19% 19% 16% 16% 16%
65 to 74 21% 15% 18% 12% 12% 12%
75 plus 13% 11% 12% 10% 10% 11%
All participants 45% 55% 100% 48% 48% 100%
Unweighted bases (number) 2,085 2,564 4,649 25,243,097 26,929,894 52,172,991

Table A.4: (Individual response, by mode of completion and sex) shows response rates by mode of completion, overall and for males and females separately. Overall, 63 percent (2,918) completed the survey online and 37 percent (1,732) completed a postal questionnaire. These results are broadly in line with expectations, based on the development stages of the GSGB.

Table A.4: Individual-level response, by mode of completion and sex

Table A.4: Individual-level response, by mode of completion and sex
Sex Individual-level response: Online completions (percentage) Individual-level response: Postal completions (percentage) Individual-level response: Total completions (percentage) Individual-level response: Total completions (number)
Males 64% 36% 45% 2,085
Females 62% 38% 55% 2,565
All participants 63% 37% 100% 4,650
Unweighted bases (number) 2,918 1,732 4,650 4,650

There was little difference between males and females in the mode of completion. In all age groups, except the oldest two (aged 65 to 74 and aged 75 and over), a higher proportion of participants completed the survey online than filled in the postal questionnaire. In total, 48 percent of those aged 65 to 74 and 28 percent of those aged 75 and over completed the survey online compared with between 53 percent and 85 percent of those in the younger age groups as shown in Table A.5: (Individual-level response, by mode of completion and age).

Table A.5: Individual-level response, by mode of completion and age

Table A.5: Individual-level response, by mode of completion and age
Age group (years) Individual-level response: Online completions (percentage) Individual-level response: Postal completions (percentage) Individual-level response: Total completions (number)
18 to 24 84% 16% 289
25 to 34 85% 15% 690
35 to 44 81% 19% 732
45 to 54 72% 28% 676
55 to 64 53% 47% 876
65 to 74 48% 52% 834
75 plus 28% 72% 559
All participants 63% 37% 4,656
Unweighted bases (number) 2,922 1,734 4,656

The mode of survey completion was similar for those who participated in gambling in the past 4 weeks and those who did not, with 64 percent of those who participated in gambling in the past 4 weeks completing the survey online and 63 percent of those who did not, as shown in Table A.6: (Individual-level response, by mode of completion and gambling participation in the past 4 weeks).

Table A.6: Individual-level response, by mode of completion and gambling participation in the past 4 weeks

Table A.6: Individual-level response, by mode of completion and gambling participation in the past 4 weeks
Gambling prevalence in the past 4 weeks Individual-level response: Online completions (percentage) Individual-level response: Postal completions (percentage) Individual-level response: Total completions (number)
Gambled in the past 4 weeks 64% 36% 2,160
Not gambled in the past 4 weeks 63% 37% 2,435
Unweighted bases (number) 2,920 1,675 4,595

References

1When estimating the proportion of ineligible addresses on an online survey, it is best practice to assume the same ineligibility rate as a recent face-to-face survey which uses the same sample frame and sampling approach and for which detailed outcomes are known for the entire issued sample. Ineligibility rates in Postcode Address File (PAF) face-to-face surveys tend to fall between 8 percent and 10 percent and 9 percent is the rate recorded in the most recent face-to-face British Social Attitudes Survey (2019) and so has been used as an appropriate default for this survey.

2Regions are shown only for England because the sample is so big, and the Scotland and Wales samples are equivalent to the size of an English region.

3Where a single participant completed the survey a second time.

4Where more than 2 people in a household completed the survey (for example, 2 completing the survey online and 2 different people completing postal questionnaires.

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GSGB Year 2 (2024), wave 2 report - Questionnaire completion times
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