The aim of this survey was to provide government departments and organisations with information on a range of topics concerning private households for monitoring and policy purposes.
[3] This structure allowed different trailers to be included each year, depending on what information the sponsoring government departments require.
Additionally, the design was changed to a longitudinal survey in 2005-2006 because the European Union (EU) required all member states to collect extra data from a Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC).
The individual questionnaires, completed by all adults over 16 years of age resident in a household, also included issues such as employment, pensions, education, health, smoking and drinking, family information and income.
The GHS was a repeated cross-sectional study, conducted annually, which uses a sample of 9,731 households in the 2006 survey.