Household budget Survey

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

Social Statistics Unit / Living standard statistics division

5 Milana Rakića, Belgrade

natasa.mijakovac@stat.gov.rs

+381 11 2412 922 ext. 242

Not applicable

The aim of the survey is to provide data on the amount and structure of income in money and in kind and household`s consumption expenditures regularly. The survey collects data on demographic, economic and other characteristics of household members, housing conditions, availability of durables in households, etc. 

In the Household Budget Survey following classification are used:

• Classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP)
• International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED-2011)
• International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO08)
• Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (NACE Rev.2)

Not applicable.

1. Consumption expenditure

For the purpose of measuring living conditions the essential reference for the HBS is the concept of household consumption expenditure, that is, the expenditure incurred by private households on individual consumption goods and services. Beside consumption expenditure, consumption also includes the moneatry value of products from own production of households consumed for personal consumption (food, drinks and wood for heating).

For further details concerning Consumption Expenditure,  the reader is referred to the Eurostat - HBS methodology:

(http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/Annexes/hbs_esms_an1.pdf)

2. Income

Income include income in money and the money value of natural consumption and receipts in kind.

The basic unit of data collection and analysis in an Household Budget Survey is the household. A household is a social unit which meets one or more conditions of “living together” in addition to sharing a common accommodation.

1.  Definition of Household:

A household is: a) a community of persons, whose members live and prepare food together and jointly spend the earned income and b) a single person, living, preparing food and spending the earned income on his/her own.

2. Definition of Household member:

• Persons temporarily absent (persons in compulsory military service, serving the sentence in prison less than year);
• Pupils and students are considered members of a household, regardless the time spent outside his/her household;
• Daily or weekly migrants, persons who work or go to school in other place in the country or abroad and have economical relations with household (with no household there) where they stay one month minimum in a year.

3. Definition of Reference Person

Head of household is a person familiar to all household members. Most often, this is a person who makes important decisions or is responsible of the financial situation and well-being of household members.

The Household Budget Survey includes households on the territory of the Republic of Serbia (permanent residents).

Every household chosen according to the sample plan is a survey unit.

The survey does not cover collective households (hospitals, prisons, monasteries, boarding schools, etc.). 

Republic of Serbia

Since 1999, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia doesn't dispose of certain data for AP Kosovo and Metohia, so they are not contained in the data coverage for the Republic of Serbia (total)

Household Budget Survey is continuous survey, data are collected throughout the entire calendar year (from 1 January to 31 December).

Since 2006, data are comparable 

Not applicable.

Data are collected throughout the entire calendar year (income, expenditure, and household consumption from 1 January to 31 December). Every household is observed fifteen, i.e. sixteen days.

The period of observation lasts fifteen, i.e. sixteen days, for products and services intended for household consumption and income, collected by diary method.

In the survey used are moving referent period that are defined from the moment of the interview backwards for a precisely defined period...

The referent period is twelve months for data on the purchase of durables, three months for data on the purchase of semi-durables, one month for income and expenditure of households engaged in agriculture, hunting and fishing, and performing an independent gainful activity.

Not applicable.

Data confidentiality is stipulated by:

- Official Statistics Law (Official Gazette of RS, number 104/2009), Articles 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49.

(www.stat.gov.rs/media/2322/zakon_o_statisticie.pdf)

- Rulebook on statistical data protection in the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

(www.stat.gov.rs/media/2343/rulebook-on-statistical-data-protection-in-sors.doc ) 

- Guidelines on measures of data and information protection in the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

(www.stat.gov.rs/media/2341/guidelines-on-measures-of-data-and-information-protection-in-the-sors.doc )

Need to protect individual data is an extremely important issue. The results of the survey are published as aggregates, thus securing full confidentiality of information about households and individuals, according to the provisions of the Law on Official Statistics. Statistical micro-databases that are released for use for scientific research purposes contain reduced information about the respondents in order to prevent identification of the surveyed individuals or households.

Calendar of releases is available at SORS website on the 1st day of December every year for the forthcoming year (http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/calendar).

Calendar of releases is available at SORS website:

http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/calendar

Household Budget Survey is continuous survey, data are collected throughout the entire calendar year (from 1 January to 31 December). The data are published annually.

Statistical release LP11: Income in money and in kind and individual consumption of households (on line)

http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/oblasti/potrosnja-prihodi-i-uslovi-zivota/potrosnja-domacinstva

Bulletin Household Budget Survey: 

http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-us/oblasti/potrosnja-prihodi-i-uslovi-zivota/potrosnja-domacinstva/

Statistical Yearbook:

http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-us/oblasti/potrosnja-prihodi-i-uslovi-zivota/potrosnja-domacinstva/

Statistical pocketbook:

http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-us/oblasti/potrosnja-prihodi-i-uslovi-zivota/potrosnja-domacinstva/

Regions of the Republic of Serbia:

http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-us/oblasti/potrosnja-prihodi-i-uslovi-zivota/potrosnja-domacinstva/

https://data.stat.gov.rs/?caller=SDDB&languageCode=en-US

Database > Household Budget Survey, Income and Living Conditions Survey > Household Budget Survey

Submission of data at the request of users is performed in accordance with Rules on Dissemination of Statistical Data and Services of Statistical Office, in accordance with Articles 39 and 43 of the provision on data and information dissemination of the Official statistics law (‘Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 104/09’):

http://www.stat.gov.rs/media/2322/zakon_o_statisticie.pdf

When publishing results of research based on anonymized micro data of Statistical Office, it is necessary to specify Statistical Office as a data resource.

http://www.stat.gov.rs/istrazivanja/methodology-and-documents/?a=01&s=0

Not applicable.

The results of Household Consumer Surveys are estimates obtained from the data of surveyed households based on the sample, using standard procedures. Various quality control measures were applied throughout the survey process to ensure a high quality of work.

HBS data are used for calculation of consumer price index and for estimating private final consumption expenditure of the household sector in the National Accounts (NA)

Also, the survey provides an amount of information allowing the monitoring of economic and social living conditions of the population.

The survey data are used to carry out analysis and studies on population living conditions, measure poverty, analyze consumption patterns of the population, etc.

Data users are: the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, the Government and government institutions, scientific and research institutions, international institution, students, journalists, other legal and physical persons.

On biennial basis (once in two years), by the means of web interview, implemented is the User Satisfaction Survey. The survey results are available at SORS website: http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/o-nama/sistem-upravljanja-kvalitetom.

Data are collected according to recommendation of Eurostat:

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/54431/1966394/HBS2015_Transmission_DOC_V3.2018_05_22.pdf

Data on household consumption expentirure are collected and published by the following groups of COICOP classification (Classification of individual consumption by purpose): Food and non-alcoholic beverages; Alcoholic beverages and tobacco; Clothing and footwear; Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance; Health; Transport; Communication; Recreation and culture; Education; Restaurants and hotels and Miscellaneous goods and services.

Household income in money and in kind are collected and published by the following sources of income: Regular salaries and wages; Other income; Pensions (old-age, family and other);  Social insurance related receipts; Income from agriculture, hunting and fishing; External receipts; Real estate related income; Donations and awards; Other receipts; Earned receipts in kind; Natural consumption. 

Like in any sample survey, the statistics generated from the HBS data may be liable to errors which are inherent in the survey method used.  Usually, a sample of households is selected in a way that the probability of a household being selected is known. In this way, the results can be reliably projected from the sample to the household reference population with known levels of precision, i.e. standard errors and confidence intervals for survey estimates can be constructed.

The size of the sampling error depends on the sample size: the higher the sample size, the higher the accuracy. Furthermore, the effective sample size can be even smaller as a result of the way the sample has been designed.

The non-sampling errors in HBS can be summarised as follow:

• Coverage errors: errors due to divergences existing between the target population and the sampling frame.
• Measurement errors: errors that occur at the time of data collection. There are a number of sources for these errors such as the survey instrument, the interviewer and the mode of collection
• Processing errors: errors in post-data-collection processes such as data entry, editing and weighting.
• Non-response errors: errors due to an unsuccessful attempt to obtain the desired information from an eligible unit. Two main types of non-response errors are considered: Unit non-response: refers to absence of information of the whole households selected into the sample and Item non-response: refers to the situation where a sample unit has been successfully enumerated, but not all required information has been obtained.

Annual statistical release: 115 days after referent period

So far, the deadlines have been strictly observed.

Given that the HBS is voluntary and no legal basis exists at EU level, the survey structure and implementation arrangements are diverse; this has evident implications for comparability. However in recent years, all the participating countries and Eurostat have made great efforts to harmonise their HBS and to improve data comparability.

Since 2006, data are comparable 

Тhere is very good internal data coherence.

The Hоusehold Budget Survey is one of the most demanding surveys that National Statistical Institutes carry out. Even more, the burden is especially felt by the households in the diary keeping phase, which lasts for two consecutive weeks.

Not applicable.

A survey unit is taken to be every single - or several - member household, selected according to the sample plan.

Sampling frame – Population Census 2011 

The Household Budget Survey includes households on the territory of the Republic of Serbia (permanent residents).

Type of sample - The sample is a two-stage, stratified sample. The first unit stage are numeration districts and the second stage units are households.

Startification – Enumeration districts (PSUs) are stratified according to the type of settlement (urban and other) and to the territory of 14 regions (14 strata).

Sample selection –  The sample is consisted of the 12 independent sub-samples for each month which are selected according to the same sampling scheme. Units of the first stage (Enumeration districts (PSUs)) are selected proportionally to the number of households, while the units of the second stage (households) are chosen with the same probabilities (random sample). 

Sample size - Sample is consists 960 Enumeration districts, 8800 households annually. Every fifteen days, 370 households are interviewed. 

System of assessment were executed in a standard way applied for two-stage stratified sample, the selection procedure for the first stage was in proportion to size and repeated, while for the second stage it was simple random selection and not repeated. 

Household Budget Survey is continuous survey, data are collected throughout the entire calendar year (from 1 January to 31 December).

The Household Budget Survey is carried out using the PAPI method. The survey applies the method of diary keeping and interview method on the basis of questionnaires. A household keeps a individual consumption diary for fiftieen, sixteen days, regarding items and services of consumption expenditures and income.

Fieldwork is undertaken by a team of around 30 interviewers. Survey Interviewers were trained and made familiar with the methodology of the survey to ensure an adequate and impartial data.

Questionnaire is filled by the Interviewers, which includes a wide range of questions regarding: socio-economic profile of each household member; basic information on the dwelling; household consumption expenditures occurring on a quarterly or annual basis; possesion of durable goods; income information at individual level and household level.

The data collection process is subject to a series of quality checks by a group of SORS employed. Particular attention is made to monitor and limit the occurrence of errors arising in the data processing, editing and coding phases. 

In addition, the data entry program have a number of built-in validation rules to ensure the quality of captured data and that data-entry errors are kept to an absolute minimum.

The data collection process is followed by a series of telephone audits that are carried out on a sample of households to ensure that all Interviewers compiled with methodological instructions.

1. Calculation of the household design weights

Household design weight is calculated is the reciprocal of the probability of selection of the household, based on the probability proportional to the number of households in the enumerated areas at the first stage and random selection of the households at the second stage

2. Weight adjustments for non-response at household level

Household design weight is corrected for non-response in each enumerated area, using the model for data missing at random; eq. estimator is formed over the response set

Not applicable.