The museum · UK
The 1960s collection
Research collection
Read the records on their own terms
The records are available for inspection, but a coherent visitor route has not yet been reviewed. Read each survey's year, population and measure separately.
Explore the available evidence ↓The composite family. Each room is a statistical composite, assembled from separate distributions with separate sources. The family at the median income did not also have the median house, the median car, and the median diet. No single family described here ever existed; each fact tells you, in its provenance drawer, which real population it was measured from.
About this selection · Research holding
The records are available for inspection, but a coherent visitor route has not yet been reviewed. Read each survey's year, population and measure separately.
This describes how the page is arranged; it is not an evidence score.
Objects & everyday life
A closer look
Each label names its measurement and date. Drawings identify subjects, not exact appliance models.
Inspect the evidence
Browse the records
Every observation includes its measured population and source. Calculations identify their inputs; gaps explain what remains unavailable or unverified.
- Recorded observations
- 4
- Calculated exhibits
- 0
- Documented gaps
- 4
These are counts of collection entries, not people or households. Observations exclude gaps; calculated exhibits are counted separately. A gap is an unanswered or unverified item, not a zero value.
The home
1 observations · 1 gapsOwned 43%, private rented 34%, socially rented 23%A
Tenure of households, England and Wales, 1961observed record
% of households
Population measuredHouseholds in England and Wales
Source recordOffice for National Statistics · 2015 · Tier A
Full record
Home ownership down and renting up for the first time in a century
Office for National Statistics, 2015 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From ONS analysis of Census of England and Wales tenure. 1961: owner-occupation had risen to 43% (from 32% in 1953) as mortgage access widened; private renting continued its long decline (34%). The social-rented sector more than doubled over the decade (10% → 23%) on the postwar council-house building drive. Households, not families.
Source note: ONS analysis of tenure 1918–2011 from the Census of England and Wales, interpolated between census years. Reported as % of households: owned (owner-occupied), private rented, socially rented. Data CSV at https://static.ons.gov.uk/visual/2015/06/data.csv (HTTP 200 verified and byte-identical to the local copy). Figures are for households, not families — single-person and low-income households pull the tenure mix differently than a median four-person family would.
Assumption: The composite family
Office for National Statistics, 2015 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From ONS analysis of Census of England and Wales tenure. 1961: owner-occupation had risen to 43% (from 32% in 1953) as mortgage access widened; private renting continued its long decline (34%). The social-rented sector more than doubled over the decade (10% → 23%) on the postwar council-house building drive. Households, not families.
Source note: ONS analysis of tenure 1918–2011 from the Census of England and Wales, interpolated between census years. Reported as % of households: owned (owner-occupied), private rented, socially rented. Data CSV at https://static.ons.gov.uk/visual/2015/06/data.csv (HTTP 200 verified and byte-identical to the local copy). Figures are for households, not families — single-person and low-income households pull the tenure mix differently than a median four-person family would.
Assumption: The composite family
no reliable record accessible onlineD
Rooms, floor area, amenities (bath, WC, central heating)documented gap
n/a
Population measuredHouseholds in Great Britain (General Household Survey / General Lifestyle Survey)
Source recordOffice for National Statistics · 2013 · Tier D
Full record
General Lifestyle Survey: 40 years of data collection (Figure 40.2 — consumer durables and cars)
Office for National Statistics, 2013 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: The 1961 Census asked about piped water, WC, fixed bath, and piped hot water, but those amenity tables are not in the archive. The GHS (central heating, appliances) did not begin until 1971. Slum clearance and new council estates were rapidly extending inside bathrooms and hot water through the decade.
Source note: Figure 40.2: percentage of households with consumer durables and cars, 1972–2011. Reports colour television, home computer, telephone, and car or van (the fuller durable basket — central heating, refrigerator, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, dishwasher — is in a separate table not included in this overview). Unweighted data. The GHS covered Great Britain (England, Wales, Scotland); the survey was discontinued after 2012. Values transcribed from the figure's underlying data CSV (ghs-data-chart3.csv); an OCR pass of the figure misread two cells (telephone 42→43, colour TV 61→60), confirming the CSV, not the OCR, is authoritative.
Office for National Statistics, 2013 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: The 1961 Census asked about piped water, WC, fixed bath, and piped hot water, but those amenity tables are not in the archive. The GHS (central heating, appliances) did not begin until 1971. Slum clearance and new council estates were rapidly extending inside bathrooms and hot water through the decade.
Source note: Figure 40.2: percentage of households with consumer durables and cars, 1972–2011. Reports colour television, home computer, telephone, and car or van (the fuller durable basket — central heating, refrigerator, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, dishwasher — is in a separate table not included in this overview). Unweighted data. The GHS covered Great Britain (England, Wales, Scotland); the survey was discontinued after 2012. Values transcribed from the figure's underlying data CSV (ghs-data-chart3.csv); an OCR pass of the figure misread two cells (telephone 42→43, colour TV 61→60), confirming the CSV, not the OCR, is authoritative.
The budget
1 observations · 1 gaps£18.91A
Average gross weekly earnings, adult male manual workers, 1965observed record
GBP per week, nominal (mean gross weekly earnings, male manual, full-time)
Population measuredAdult full-time employees in Great Britain whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence
Source recordOffice for National Statistics · 2025 · Tier A
Full record
Earnings time series of mean gross weekly earnings from 1938 to 2025
Office for National Statistics, 2025 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Basis: Weekly figure
Curator note: From the ONS long-run earnings series. 1965 (April sample, pre-NES): adult male manual workers £18.91/week; adult female manual workers £9.21/week. Great Britain. Pre-1970 the series reports manual and non-manual workers separately, not a combined all-employee figure. Individual earnings, not family income.
Source note: Long-run weekly earnings series. 1938–1968 from Annual Abstract of Statistics (adult manual workers); 1968–2003 New Earnings Survey (NES); 2004+ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), weighted to LFS population totals. Male/female reported separately for 1938–1969; a combined all-employee series is available from 1970. Discontinuities at each methodology change are documented in the file. Data file resolves at /file?uri=.../current/19382025.xlsx (HTTP 200 verified).
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Values are shown in period money
Assumption: Manufacturing wages as the early-era worker proxy
Office for National Statistics, 2025 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Basis: Weekly figure
Curator note: From the ONS long-run earnings series. 1965 (April sample, pre-NES): adult male manual workers £18.91/week; adult female manual workers £9.21/week. Great Britain. Pre-1970 the series reports manual and non-manual workers separately, not a combined all-employee figure. Individual earnings, not family income.
Source note: Long-run weekly earnings series. 1938–1968 from Annual Abstract of Statistics (adult manual workers); 1968–2003 New Earnings Survey (NES); 2004+ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), weighted to LFS population totals. Male/female reported separately for 1938–1969; a combined all-employee series is available from 1970. Discontinuities at each methodology change are documented in the file. Data file resolves at /file?uri=.../current/19382025.xlsx (HTTP 200 verified).
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Values are shown in period money
Assumption: Manufacturing wages as the early-era worker proxy
no reliable record accessible onlineD
Median household income, 1960sdocumented gap
n/a
Population measuredAdult full-time employees in Great Britain whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence
Source recordOffice for National Statistics · 2025 · Tier D
Full record
Earnings time series of mean gross weekly earnings from 1938 to 2025
Office for National Statistics, 2025 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: No median household-income series is transcribed for the 1960s. The FES collected household income through the decade but is not in the archive. The manual-earnings figure above is the available wage anchor, not a household-income median.
Source note: Long-run weekly earnings series. 1938–1968 from Annual Abstract of Statistics (adult manual workers); 1968–2003 New Earnings Survey (NES); 2004+ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), weighted to LFS population totals. Male/female reported separately for 1938–1969; a combined all-employee series is available from 1970. Discontinuities at each methodology change are documented in the file. Data file resolves at /file?uri=.../current/19382025.xlsx (HTTP 200 verified).
Office for National Statistics, 2025 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: No median household-income series is transcribed for the 1960s. The FES collected household income through the decade but is not in the archive. The manual-earnings figure above is the available wage anchor, not a household-income median.
Source note: Long-run weekly earnings series. 1938–1968 from Annual Abstract of Statistics (adult manual workers); 1968–2003 New Earnings Survey (NES); 2004+ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), weighted to LFS population totals. Male/female reported separately for 1938–1969; a combined all-employee series is available from 1970. Discontinuities at each methodology change are documented in the file. Data file resolves at /file?uri=.../current/19382025.xlsx (HTTP 200 verified).
The day
1 observations · 0 gaps47.5 hoursA
Average weekly hours worked, full-time manual men aged 21 and over, April 1965observed record
average weekly hours worked, all industries covered (men aged 21 and over, manual, full-time)
Population measuredMen aged 21 and over working full-time as manual workers in the United Kingdom, all industries covered, at the April and October earnings enquiries
Source recordDepartment of Employment (HMSO) · 1969 · Tier A
Full record
British Labour Statistics: Year Book 1969
Department of Employment (HMSO), 1969 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From the Department of Employment's twice-yearly earnings enquiry as republished in the Year Book, all industries covered, April 1965. Hours fell steadily through the decade — 47.5 in April 1965, 46.4 in April 1966, 46.1 in 1967, 46.2 in 1968, 46.4 in 1969 — as the basic week shortened faster than overtime grew. The same table's weekly earnings for this column and month read £18 18s 2d, and the ONS long-run series reports £18.91 for the same population and month; the two agree, which is how this transcription from a scanned volume was checked.
Source note: Table 10, 'Average weekly and hourly earnings of manual workers, and average weekly hours worked, by industry Group, 1965-1969', final column ('All Industries covered'). Earnings in this volume are pre-decimal (£ s. d.) and are not transcribed; the hours column is decimal and is. Read from a scanned volume and checked against the rendered page (see docs/verification-log.md).
Assumption: The composite family
Department of Employment (HMSO), 1969 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From the Department of Employment's twice-yearly earnings enquiry as republished in the Year Book, all industries covered, April 1965. Hours fell steadily through the decade — 47.5 in April 1965, 46.4 in April 1966, 46.1 in 1967, 46.2 in 1968, 46.4 in 1969 — as the basic week shortened faster than overtime grew. The same table's weekly earnings for this column and month read £18 18s 2d, and the ONS long-run series reports £18.91 for the same population and month; the two agree, which is how this transcription from a scanned volume was checked.
Source note: Table 10, 'Average weekly and hourly earnings of manual workers, and average weekly hours worked, by industry Group, 1965-1969', final column ('All Industries covered'). Earnings in this volume are pre-decimal (£ s. d.) and are not transcribed; the hours column is decimal and is. Read from a scanned volume and checked against the rendered page (see docs/verification-log.md).
Assumption: The composite family
What had arrived
1 observations · 0 gaps13,253,045 licences (1965)A
Television receiving licences, 1965observed record
television receiving licences at 31 March (≈ TV-owning households)
Population measuredUK television receiving licence holders at 31 March each year (one licence required per household operating any TV set)
Source recordBBC / TV Licensing (compiled by terramededia.co.uk) · 2024 · Tier A
Full record
UK television receiving licences (annual counts, from 1946)
BBC / TV Licensing (compiled by terramededia.co.uk), 2024 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From BBC / TV Licensing receiving-licence counts. Television reached near-universality through the 1960s: 10,469,753 licences (1960) → 13,253,045 (1965), covering the great majority of households. BBC2 and colour television began in 1968. One licence was required per household with a set, so the count approximates TV-owning households (slight evasion undercount). This licence count is not directly comparable to the post-1972 GHS household-percentage series.
Source note: Annual count of television receiving licences, at 31 March. A TV licence was mandatory for any household operating a television set, so the count is a close proxy for TV-owning households (slight undercount from evasion). Combined sound-and-television licences were introduced 1 June 1946; colour TV licences from 1968. terramededia.co.uk compiles the BBC / TV Licensing administrative series (URL resolves HTTP 200, verified 2026-07). The count is NOT a household percentage and is not directly comparable to the post-1972 GHS household-% diffusion series without a household-count denominator.
BBC / TV Licensing (compiled by terramededia.co.uk), 2024 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From BBC / TV Licensing receiving-licence counts. Television reached near-universality through the 1960s: 10,469,753 licences (1960) → 13,253,045 (1965), covering the great majority of households. BBC2 and colour television began in 1968. One licence was required per household with a set, so the count approximates TV-owning households (slight evasion undercount). This licence count is not directly comparable to the post-1972 GHS household-percentage series.
Source note: Annual count of television receiving licences, at 31 March. A TV licence was mandatory for any household operating a television set, so the count is a close proxy for TV-owning households (slight undercount from evasion). Combined sound-and-television licences were introduced 1 June 1946; colour TV licences from 1968. terramededia.co.uk compiles the BBC / TV Licensing administrative series (URL resolves HTTP 200, verified 2026-07). The count is NOT a household percentage and is not directly comparable to the post-1972 GHS household-% diffusion series without a household-count denominator.
What the collection cannot yet show
These are documented research gaps. Open a source card for the specific limitation.
The table
0 observations · 1 gapsno reliable record accessible onlineD
The food basket, 1960sdocumented gap
n/a
Population measuredHouseholds in Great Britain (General Household Survey / General Lifestyle Survey)
Source recordOffice for National Statistics · 2013 · Tier D
Full record
General Lifestyle Survey: 40 years of data collection (Figure 40.2 — consumer durables and cars)
Office for National Statistics, 2013 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: The National Food Survey (NFS) ran continuously 1940–2000, but the 1960s NFS data is not in the archive. (Archive holds NFS 1940–49 and 2023–24, but not the 1960s.)
Source note: Figure 40.2: percentage of households with consumer durables and cars, 1972–2011. Reports colour television, home computer, telephone, and car or van (the fuller durable basket — central heating, refrigerator, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, dishwasher — is in a separate table not included in this overview). Unweighted data. The GHS covered Great Britain (England, Wales, Scotland); the survey was discontinued after 2012. Values transcribed from the figure's underlying data CSV (ghs-data-chart3.csv); an OCR pass of the figure misread two cells (telephone 42→43, colour TV 61→60), confirming the CSV, not the OCR, is authoritative.
Office for National Statistics, 2013 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: The National Food Survey (NFS) ran continuously 1940–2000, but the 1960s NFS data is not in the archive. (Archive holds NFS 1940–49 and 2023–24, but not the 1960s.)
Source note: Figure 40.2: percentage of households with consumer durables and cars, 1972–2011. Reports colour television, home computer, telephone, and car or van (the fuller durable basket — central heating, refrigerator, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, dishwasher — is in a separate table not included in this overview). Unweighted data. The GHS covered Great Britain (England, Wales, Scotland); the survey was discontinued after 2012. Values transcribed from the figure's underlying data CSV (ghs-data-chart3.csv); an OCR pass of the figure misread two cells (telephone 42→43, colour TV 61→60), confirming the CSV, not the OCR, is authoritative.
A day's work buys
0 observations · 1 gapsno reliable record accessible onlineD
Affordability comparisons, 1960sdocumented gap
n/a
Population measuredMen aged 21 and over working full-time as manual workers in the United Kingdom, all industries covered, at the April and October earnings enquiries
Source recordDepartment of Employment (HMSO) · 1969 · Tier D
Full record
British Labour Statistics: Year Book 1969
Department of Employment (HMSO), 1969 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: Hours are now recorded for this decade (47.5 a week, April 1965) but neither of the other two ingredients is. The hourly earnings printed beside them are in shillings and pence, which cannot be held in whole decimal pence without inventing precision; and no UK household-income series in the archive begins before 1977, nor any official house-price series before 1986. The weekly manual-earnings figure (£18.91, 1965) remains the available wage reference.
Source note: Table 10, 'Average weekly and hourly earnings of manual workers, and average weekly hours worked, by industry Group, 1965-1969', final column ('All Industries covered'). Earnings in this volume are pre-decimal (£ s. d.) and are not transcribed; the hours column is decimal and is. Read from a scanned volume and checked against the rendered page (see docs/verification-log.md).
Department of Employment (HMSO), 1969 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: Hours are now recorded for this decade (47.5 a week, April 1965) but neither of the other two ingredients is. The hourly earnings printed beside them are in shillings and pence, which cannot be held in whole decimal pence without inventing precision; and no UK household-income series in the archive begins before 1977, nor any official house-price series before 1986. The weekly manual-earnings figure (£18.91, 1965) remains the available wage reference.
Source note: Table 10, 'Average weekly and hourly earnings of manual workers, and average weekly hours worked, by industry Group, 1965-1969', final column ('All Industries covered'). Earnings in this volume are pre-decimal (£ s. d.) and are not transcribed; the hours column is decimal and is. Read from a scanned volume and checked against the rendered page (see docs/verification-log.md).
Confidence & flags
A — official statistical series
B — official microdata, computed by this project
C — reconstructed from period surveys
D — scholarly estimate
Gap — no reliable record; shown as the gap it is
Reading the atlas
Provenance is in the scan-line: every exhibit's row names its value, confidence tier, the population actually measured, and the source record. Chart points and stage glyphs open the same record.
Rising series draw in petrol, falling in ember. An omitted illustration means no exhibit was selected, not that the object was historically absent.