Exploring targeted incentives to improve response in under-represented groups on the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey

This webinar will focus on a study that examined whether targeted monetary incentives improved survey participation among under‑represented groups in the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN).

From May – July 2025, a £10 conditional incentive was offered to respondents aged 16-29 and those from ethnic minority backgrounds – groups generally associated with lower response rates.

Using six waves of pre‑trial data and six waves collected during the trial, Lucy Bryant, Sam Hardon and Alice Wolfle (Office for National Statistics, ONS) will present the results of these targeted incentives.

They evaluated impacts on response rates and sample representativeness through descriptive analysis, logistic regression, and a quasi‑experimental difference‑in‑differences (DiD) approach.

Findings show a statistically significant overall increase in OPN response rates of 3.5 percentage points following the introduction of the incentive.

The targeted groups responded particularly strongly, with response rates rising by 10.8 percentage points (p.p), 11.5 p.p among 16–29‑year‑olds and 10.1 p.p among ethnic minority respondents.

The proportion of total achieved responses coming from the targeted group increased by 2.8 p.p, reducing demographic under‑representation within the responding sample.

DiD analysis indicates a causal effect of +5.6 p.p in the proportion of targeted respondents after accounting for underlying trends, supporting the validity of the descriptive results.

Logistic regression further confirmed that the intervention significantly increased the likelihood of response among targeted individuals

Together, the results provide robust evidence that modest, targeted monetary incentives can meaningfully increase participation among hard‑to‑reach groups and improve sample representativeness in social surveys.

The study also highlights practical and ethical considerations for implementing differential incentives and identifies areas for future research, including testing incentive strategies within longitudinal survey contexts.