A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
VI. SOUP PLATES
New Series Regional H. 12
An Inquiry made by the Wartime Social Survey for the Board of Trade
Interviewing: 1st to 13th March, 1943
The purpose of the inquiry was to find out what were domestic stocks of soup plates and particularly to compare the position in Scotland with that in other areas.
Housewives were asked what stocks they had and also whether they had tried to buy any soup plates during the last four weeks.
A sample of 2411 housewives was interviewed. These were selected in representative proportions from different areas and income groups.
For the purpose of this inquiry soup plates were defined as being at least eight inches in diameter. Cup - shaped soup bowls were not included and investigators were warned against including fruit plates of the same shape as soup plates but being less than eight inches in diameter.
Stocks of Soup Plates
| Whole Sample | |
| % | |
| None | 24.9 |
| 1 | 4.4 |
| 2 | 9.6 |
| 3 | 10.7 |
| 4 | 9.7 |
| 5 | 4.3 |
| 6 | 14.5 |
| 7 - 11 | 7.0 |
| 12 | 5.2 |
| More than 12 | 4.5 |
| Don’t know | 3.4 |
| No answer | 1.8 |
| Sample: | 2411 |
The average number of soup plates per household was 4.4.
An inquiry carried out by the Wartime Social Survey in September 1942, in which a similar sample was used, gave an average of 3.3 soup plates per household. However, in this inquiry soup plates were defined as “plates usually between 6 ins. and 8 ins. in diameter with a bowl about 2 ins. smaller and up to 1½ ins. deep”. For this reason results are not comparable.
Breakdown by areas gives the following results:-
There is a marked difference between Scotland and other areas, the average number per household having 10.1, and over 7 0 % of the households possessing half a dozen or more soup plates.
Breakdown by income group is as follows:-
Stocks are considerably greater in the higher income groups than in the lower.
Housewives were asked “Have you tried to buy any soup plates during the last four weeks?”
Breakdown by area is as follows:-
In considering these results it should be borne in mind that the sample for Scotland is small, and the margin of error wide.
Analysis by income group shows a slightly greater proportion trying to buy soup plates in the lower income groups than in the higher.
| Classes A & B | Classes C & D | Total | |
| % | % | % | |
| Had tried to buy | 4.7 ± 1.7 | 6.3 | 5.9 |
| Had not tried to buy | 95.3 | 93.7 | 94.1 |
| Sample: | 620 | 1785 | 2411 |
Those who had tried to buy soup plates during the last four weeks were asked whether they succeeded and whether they had any difficulty, and the number of shops visited.
Thus 71.2% of those trying, or 4.2% of the whole sample had been unsuccessful. Half of these had tried in three or more shops.
Numbers are not sufficient for breakdowns of these results to be given by area or income group.