Question reference: S5W-33471
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 23 November 2020
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Current status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the sample size has been for the Coronavirus (COVID-19): ONS Infection Survey in each week since it began, and how this compares with other parts of the UK.
Answer
Figures published on 26 November show that the total number of eligible individuals in households that have registered for the study for each country in the UK up to 21 November, which ONS recommend can be used as the study sample size. It is important to note that each country joined the study at different times, and as Scotland was the last country to join the study, the Scottish sample size has had the least time to expand.
Current Sign-up status | UK | England | Wales | Northern Ireland | Scotland |
Households registered | 207,735 | 183,511 | 7,679 | 3,766 | 12,779 |
Eligible individuals in registered households (total) | 437,446 | 389,119 | 15,622 | 7,890 | 24,815 |
The sample size (number of individual participants) used for analysis for each week of the study is not available, as analysis is predominantly based on two week periods. The most recent 14-day estimates for Scotland are included in the below table, along with the 14-day estimates for the other UK countries in order to provide a comparison. Please be aware that sample size figures will contain the same individuals across different time periods and for this reason, it is not appropriate to sum up counts from multiple periods, as this will lead to double counting. A small proportion of samples are excluded from analysis due to missing characteristics data.
14-day period | Sample Size (individual participants) | |||
Scotland | England | Wales | Northern Ireland | |
27 September to 10 October 2020 | 2,999 | 162,448 | 3,506 | 2,836 |
11 October to 24 October 2020 | 5,672 | 182,184 | 4,810 | 3,073 |
25 October to 07 November 2020 | 5,656 | 158,308 | 4,459 | 3,197 |
08 November to 21 November 2020 | 8,192 | 169,333 | 5,068 | 3,604 |
Figures can be found on the ONS website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare
/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/
26november2020/relateddata