How Reliable Are Income Data Collected with aSingle Question?

Income is an important correlate for numerous phenomena in the social sciences. But manysurveys collect data with just a single question covering all forms of income. This raisesissues of quality, and these are heightened when individuals are asked about the householdtotal rather than own income alone. Data are typically banded, implying a loss of information.We investigate the reliability of "single-question" data using the ONS Omnibus and BritishSocial Attitudes (BSA) surveys as examples...