The concepts and definitions of household income, household expenditure and household consumption expenditure preferred as standards of reference for the completion of this questionnaire are those contained in the resolution concerning household income and expenditure statistics, adopted by the Seventeenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians, December 2003.  Please see:

(a)               Report of Conference

 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/download/17thicls/final.pdf

and;

(b)               Report II:  Household Income and Expenditure

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/download/17thicls/r2hies.pdf

The data requested in this table relate to the percentage distribution of households and certain characteristics of these households by expenditure class. The individual components of the table are specified below:

§          Number of sampled households in each expenditure class;

§          Percentage distribution of households by expenditure classes;

§          Average household size of each expenditure class;

§          Percentage breakdown of households by urban and rural areas within each expenditure class;

§          Percentage of female-headed households in each expenditure class;

§          Percentage of households in each expenditure class by the following employment characteristics of household heads (or reference persons):

-         Self-employment in the agricultural sector,

-         Employee in the agricultural sector,

-         Self-employed in non-agricultural sector,

-         Employee in the non-agricultural sector,

-         Others (including unemployed);

§          Average monthly household income in each expenditure class (see notes below for Table 4 for definition of household income). Preference is for total household income, but if not available per capita household income is acceptable.

The data requested in Table 2 concern the average monthly total household expenditure and its percentage distribution by household consumption (major COICOP groupings of goods and services, and where possible by sub-groups for housing) and household non-consumption expenditures. As far as possible, average monthly total household expenditure is preferred but if this is not available average monthly per capita household expenditure could be used. Household expenditure is the sum of household consumption expenditure and household non-consumption expenditure.

Household consumption expenditure is the value of consumer goods and services acquired, used or paid for by a household through direct monetary purchases, own account production, barter or as income-in-kind.  Thus the value of items produced by households and utilized for their own consumption, the net rental value of owner-occupied housing and the gross rental value of free housing occupied by the household represent part of household consumption expenditure. In principle, non-monetary transfers (gifts) received are not part of household consumption expenditure, but some countries include them in practice. If included, please indicate as a footnote.

Household non-consumption expenditure refers to transfers made to governments, non-profit institutions and other households such as income taxes, social security contributions, family support payments (e.g., alimony, parental support, child support).

Expenditures on investment (e.g. private life insurance, capital purchases, savings), on meeting liabilities (e.g. repayment of loans) and on household enterprises should be reported separately from household expenditure, as ‘Other disbursements’.

The following COICOP classification of consumption expenditures is proposed:

-                      Food and non-alcoholic beverages

-                      Alcohol, tobacco and narcotics

-                      Clothing and footwear

-                      Housing

o         Actual rent

o         Imputed rent for owner-occupied housing

o         Water supply and housing repairs

o         Fuel and lighting

-                      Furniture and household equipment

-                      Health

-                      Transport

-                      Communications

-                      Recreation and culture

-                      Education

-                      Other consumption expenditure

If statistics classified by COICOP are not available, other classifications are acceptable and should be footnoted if used.

The data requested in Table 3 refer to percentage distribution of households by age of household head and by household size for each expenditure class.

The data requested in Table 4 relate to the percentage distribution of average monthly household income by source and to the percentage distribution of households and certain household characteristics by income class.

Household income consists of all receipts whether monetary or in kind (goods and services) that are received by households and their individual members at annual or more frequent intervals. These receipts are available for current consumption and do not reduce net worth of the household through reduction of its cash, disposal of its other financial or non-financial assets or an increase in its liabilities. Excluded from household income are windfall gains and other such irregular and typically one-time receipts. Household income should be reported gross, that is before deduction of income or other taxes and social security contributions.

Household income arises as follows: income from employment (both employee and self-employed), property income (interests, dividends, rents received, royalties), income from the production of household services for own consumption (owner-occupied housing), current transfers received from governments, non-profit institutions and other households (e.g. pensions, social assistance benefits, regular gifts, regular remittances from abroad, regular receipts from inheritances, alimony, child care and other family support payments).

Receipts in kind include the imputed rental value of owner-occupied housing and of free and subsidized housing provided by employers or from other sources, other employee income in kind, the value of other goods and services produced for own consumption or received as non-monetary transfers from governments, non-profit institutions and other households.

The individual components of the table are specified below:

-                      Number of sampled households in each income class;

-                      Percentage distribution of households by income class;

-                      Average household size in each income class;

-                      Average number of household members who receive monetary income from employment in each income class;

-                      Average monthly household expenditure in each income class. (As far as possible, average monthly total household expenditure is preferred but if this is not available average monthly per capita household expenditure could be used. If so, please indicate as a note to the table.) Household expenditure is defined in the above notes for Table 2;

-                      In each income class, average monthly total household income and the percentage of this income that is non-monetary;

-                      For each income class, percentage of income from the following sources:

o         Paid employment income (from all jobs): Direct wages and salaries for time worked and work done, cash bonuses and gratuities, commissions and tips, directors’ fees, profit-sharing bonuses and other forms of profit-related pay, remuneration for time not worked as well as free or subsidized goods and services from an employer. Preferably, severance and termination pay as well as employers’ social security contributions should be excluded. If not, please indicate as a note in the table. These receipts could be monetary or in kind.

o         Self-employment income: Income received, monetary and non-monetary, as a result of self-employment jobs by primarily owners of unincorporated enterprises. It excludes profits from capital investment of sleeping partners, dividends and directors’ fees. It includes the estimated value of goods and services produced for barter as well as goods produced for own consumption;

o         Property income: Receipts arising from ownership of assets including interest receipts, dividends, rents and royalties. Included also for purpose of this data collection exercise are imputed rents from owner-occupied housing.

o         Transfer income: Monetary and non-monetary receipts from governments, non-profit institutions and other households for which the household does not directly give anything in return. Included are social security benefits (e.g. pensions, unemployment benefits, sickness benefits and allowances from social insurance schemes), remittances from abroad and other transfers (pensions and benefits from employer-sponsored insurance schemes, current transfers from non-profit institutions and transfers from other households such as alimony, child support, regular inheritances);

o         Other income: From sources other than those classified above such as estimated value of home-produced services apart from housing.

The data requested in Table 5 refer to percentage distribution of households by household size and sex of household head for each income class. Thus, for each household size, the percentage of households with that size is split into the percentage headed by females and the complementary percentage headed by males. If, instead of headship, the concept used is that of reference person, please indicate as provided in the above notes of the table.

Household income is as defined in the above notes for Table 4.

The data requested in Table 6 are time series data. For each year, starting from the most recent, the following individual components are requested:

-                      Coverage: Please indicate if the statistics in the remaining columns apply to the whole country (national), only urban areas, only rural areas, or some other geographical grouping.

-                      Unit: The unit of analysis to which the statistics refer. This could be household, person, adult-equivalent or some other unit.

-                      Poverty Line (PL): The cut-off used for the poverty measures. The data required are as follows:

o         Method: This could be an absolute poverty line, a relative poverty line or the unmet basic needs method.

o         The PL amount in local currency, if applicable;

-                      Income/expenditure concept (For Poverty Line method): In producing the poverty and inequality measures,

o         the income distribution could be based on total income, disposable income (total less compulsory deductions such as taxes, compulsory fees, family support, etc.) or some other income concept;

o         the expenditure distribution could be based on household consumption expenditure, household expenditure (see Table 2) or actual final consumption (household consumption expenditure plus value of goods and services acquired or used by households through transfers from governments, non-profit institutions and other households).

-                      Poverty measures (Unmet Basic Needs method): Poverty incidence is the percentage of units with unmet basic needs.  In this case, other poverty measures, deciles, etc shown in the table are not applicable.

-                      Poverty measures (Poverty Line method):

o         Poverty incidence: The percentage of units that fall below the poverty line – P(0);

o         Poverty gap index: The magnitude of poverty measured as the mean income/expenditure shortfall from the poverty line as a proportion of that line (with non-poor having zero shortfall) – P(1);

o         Poverty severity: The mean of the square of the depth of poverty (proportionate poverty gap) for each unit – P(2);

o         All these measures can be obtained from the formula

    ,

     where  y_i is the income/expenditure of the ith unit,

                 z is the poverty line,

                 n is the total number of units  and

                 q is the number of units below the poverty line.

-                      Income/expenditure distribution: Preference is to have the decile cut-offs in national currency, but if not available, quintiles are acceptable.

-                      Income/expenditure inequality: Measured by Gini coefficient given by

  ,  

    where is mean income/expenditure,

               y_i  is the income/expenditure of the ith unit,

               y_j  is the income/expenditure of the jth unit  and