Data project

Permanent Survey on Households’ Living Conditions / Statistical survey on Resources and Living Condition, French part of the European survey SILC (Statistics on Income and Living conditions)

EPCV / SRCV : Enquête Permanente sur les Conditions de Vie des ménages / enquête Statistique sur les Ressources et Conditions de Vie

Summary

Strengths: - The Insee is the most reliable French institute in the field of data collection and analyses; - This survey is both cross-sectional and longitudinal; - Linkage with several administrative files, which allows, for example, for a very good monitoring of financial resources; - It’s the French part of an international survey; - The sample size provides quite a large number of respondents aged 60 and above; - For many questions, a close follow-up is possible since 1996. Weaknesses: - The break from EPCV scheme to SRCV scheme; - Data dictionaries and datasets are not available in English.

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Survey same
Crosssection regular

Data gathering method
Face-to-face
Self administered questionnaire

Access to data

Conditions of access
Free downloadable files from the Centre Quételet (http://www.reseau-quetelet.cnrs.fr/spip/).

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
Individual/ household data.

Formats available
SAS

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
From 1996 to 2004, the EPCV scheme involved three annual surveys (N=8,800 households and about 11,000 individuals on each occasion): one dealing with the quality of habitat and environment (including availability and use of public transportation, services and equipments in the neighbourhood); one dealing with health, accommodation and the financial situation of households (including domestic appliances, comfort of housing, debts…); one dealing with participation in the voluntary sector and electoral activities (including working conditions, use of new technology and education/training at work, social contacts with colleagues/relatives, social isolation, leisure activities and community life). Since 2008, the SRCV annual survey includes many questions of the previous three EPCV surveys, with three blocks of questions (Health, social participation, occupation and community life; leisure and cultural activities; social mobility and contacts with relatives) + self-reported questionnaire on wellbeing (since 2010). The SRCV sample includes 12,000 households and 26,000 people aged 16+.

First year of collection
1996

Stratification if applicable

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
national

Age range
population aged 16 and over

Statistical representativeness
Population representative

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
This data source allows for the most detailed study concerning social systems and welfare (due to linkage with administrative/social insurances/tax collection files). It also allows detailed analyses concerning Work and Productivity; Education and Learning (with questions related to education/training during the whole life-course); Housing, Urban Development and Mobility; Social, Civic and Cultural Engagement; Wellbeing. There are also less detailed questions regarding health and performance, and uses of technology (with questions dealing with equipment only: computers, Wi-Fi in the household, etc.).

Linkage

Standardisation
As a part of the European survey SILC, the SRCV uses internationally harmonised standards (ISCO, ISCED), but this was not necessarily the case before 2008.

Possibility of linkage among databases
Yes. Linkage with administrative, social insurances and tax collection registries.

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable

Breaks
There have been a major break from EPCV to SRCV, as the SRCV questionnaire is specifically designed for European comparisons. Therefore, all the questions of the three annual EPCV surveys could not be kept in the SRCV questionnaire.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection

Governance

Contact information
Carine Burricand
INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies)
18, boulevard Adolphe-Pinard
75675 Paris Cedex 14 France Phone: (+33) 01 41 17 56 52
Email: carine.burricand(at)insee.fr
Url:

Timeliness, transparency
2 years (18 months for transmission of first results to Eurostat). The delay is due to the linkage with administrative tax collection files.