Consumption Survey

Summary

Strengths: Survey collects data on material, as well as non-material indicators of living standards of residents of private households. The use of international classification systems lends itself to cross-national comparability. This survey has a large sample size and survey analysis is tied to the periodic, five-year adjustment of the Austrian CPI and the Harmonised CPI. Weaknesses: Institutionalized population is not included in the sample; voluntary participation.

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Crosssection regular

Data gathering method
Face-to-face
Other: Participants fill out a diary for two weeks and a second round of face-to-face interviews follows.

Access to data

Conditions of access

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
Anonymised aggregate and detailed Microdata

Formats available
SPSS

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
Consumption surveys in some form have been conducted for 59 years (1954). Between 1954 and 1993/1994, they were conducted every ten years. Since 1999/2000 and the Austrian membership in the EU, the surveys have been carried out every 5 years to correspond with the revision of the national and Harmonised Consumer Price Index (CPI, HCPI). Round 1999/2000: data collected in 1999/2000, sample size of 7,098 households. Round 2004/2005: data collected in 2004/2005, sample size of 8,400 households. Round 2009/2010: data collected in 2009/2010, sample size of 6,534 households.

First year of collection
1954 (1999/2000 in current form)

Stratification if applicable
Regional (Bundesland); income levels

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
By state (Bundesland), NUTS2

Age range
No age range specified

Statistical representativeness
Population representative

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
Data collected on household income, living standards, household expenditure and consumption Corresponds to Social Systems and Welfare and Wellbeing Topics

Linkage

Standardisation
COICOP (Classification of Individual Consumption Expenditures); ISCO

Possibility of linkage among databases
Linked to Microcensus

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
Plausibility, accuracy and consistency check conducted, and data is compared with other datasets

Breaks
No breaks reported

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
No inconsistencies in terminology or coding reported

Governance

Contact information
Christa Kronsteiner-Mann/Social and Housing Department
Statistik Austria
Guglgasse 13
1110 Vienna Austria Phone: +431711287026
Email: christa.kronsteiner-mann(at)statistik.gv.at
Url: Aggregate tables and reports: http://www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/soziales/verbrauchsausgaben/index.html

Timeliness, transparency
Survey was conducted from April 2009 to May 2010. The main results and social statistics were made available in 2011.