The Household Budget Survey is carried out by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics along with participation by its regional units in counties and the Zagreb City administration bodies competent for official statistics. Survey is carried out in a scope of Social Statistics, in competence of Household Expenditure and Income Statistics.
Since 1998, the Central Bureau of Statistics, in co-operation with county offices competent for official statistics, has carried out the Household Budget Survey based on the representative sample. The Survey is in line with the EU methodological recommendations and international standards and classifications.
Abstract
The objective of the Household Budget Survey is to obtain data on the level and structure of household consumption expenditures. Data obtained from the Survey is used for updating and constructing of weights for national consumer price index. Furthermore, the data on the structure of household consumption expenditure is used for the needs of national accounts, i.e. for calculating of final household consumption, for calculating of imputed housing rents and for estimating figures on grey economy.
As the Household Budget Survey provides a number of information for monitoring economic and social conditions of life in households, the range of data users is very wide. Survey data are used for analyses and studies on living standards in population, measuring poverty, analyses of consumer habits and so on. Besides data on household expenditure, the Survey also collects other important data such as demographic data on household members, data on income and earnings by household members, data on housing characteristics and conditions, and so on.
Kind of Data
Sample survey data [ssd]
Version
Version Description
Version 01
Version Date
2014
Scope
Notes
The scope of the study includes:
- Information on the dwelling and housing;
- Demographic Characteristics;
- Characteristics of the Primary Job;
- Income;
- Durable goods;
- Expenses for Personal Consumption;
- Health;
- Education;
- Food Consumption.
Coverage
Geographic Coverage
Croatia
Geographic Unit
Cities and settlements
Universe
All household members. Exclusions: people who live in collective households or students in dormitories.
Producers and sponsors
Primary investigators
Name
Croatian Bureau of Statistics
Sampling
Sampling Procedure
The Survey was carried out on a random sample of private households. The sample frame used for the selection of dwellings occupied by private households was based on the Census 2011 data.
In 2014, the Household Budget Survey sample was selected in two stages. In the first one, 416 segments were selected (segments are territorial units consisting of one or several neighbouring enumeration areas). In the second stage, 10 occupied dwellings were randomly selected out of each of the selected segments. Thus, 4 160 dwellings occupied by private households were selected in the sample.
Response Rate
There were 2029 private households that were successfully interviewed. The response rate at the household level was 54%.
Weighting
The weighting procedure is carried out in order to calculate the estimate for the whole household population. This procedure compensates the effect of the sample design and sample size as well as the effect of the non-response of households to the Survey.
The population census data are used in weighting procedures. In the first phase, weights of the selection of units into the sample, taken over from both sampling stages (segments and dwellings), were calculated, and, in the second phase, weights were calculated in order to be adjusted with the non-response of units included in the sample. In the last phase of weighting, the final weights calculated in the first two phases were calibrated to the distribution totals from the 2011 Census and according to updated data on demographic characteristics of population as on 31 December 2014. The applied weighting procedure is known as a calibration method.
The calibration can be described as a process of reweighting aimed at balancing population estimates by age groups, sex and at the NUTS 2nd level from the Survey, so that the estimates given in the Survey results are in accordance with the data on the total population, in other words, with the distribution of the population according to the 2011 Census. Thus, the process of weighting of the HBS data is in compliance with the procedure of data weighting used in other household surveys conducted by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics and with Eurostat’s recommendations for surveys in the field of social statistics.
Data Collection
Dates of Data Collection
Start
End
2014
2014
Data Collection Mode
Face-to-face [f2f]
Data Collection Notes
Collection of data in the Household Budget Survey is carried out using a combination of two methods, interviewing (personal conversation with the respondent) and autonomous recording of data by the respondent.
The interview is carried out by the interviewer, and data on demographic characteristics and socio-economic characteristics of household members, level and structure of income, level and structure of expenditure by purpose and data on housing conditions are collected. Data on expenditure for food, beverages and tobacco is recorded in a diary maintained by the household for 14 days.
The collection of data is organised by regional units of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics in counties and the Zagreb City administrative body competent for official statistics. The direct participants in implementation of the Household Budget Survey in the field are the controllers and interviewers.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires
Instruments used for data collection in the Household Budget Survey are survey questionnaires. There are four questionnaires:
- Questionnaire for Household Members, HBS-1
- Questionnaire for Households, HBS-2
- Diary, HBS-3.1
- Questionnaire on Food, Beverages, Tobacco and Consumer Products, HBS-3.2
Data Processing
Data Editing
Based on the defined deadlines, the collected survey data from regional units is submitted to the Statistics Department at the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, which is responsible for further actions relating to data processing procedure.
Data processing includes data entry, data checking, weighting, tabulating, analysis of results and final preparation of data for publishing. Data entry and checking is performed using the Blaise software program while data weighting and tabulation is done using the SAS software (Statistical Analysis System).
Access policy
Contacts
Name
Affiliation
Email
Croatian Bureau of Statistics
CBS
stat.info@dzs.hr
Citation requirements
The use of the datasets must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:
- the identification of the Primary Investigator (including country name)
- the full title of the survey and its acronym (when available), and the year(s) of implementation
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download (for datasets disseminated online)
Example:
Croatian Bureau of Statistics, Croatia Household Budget Survey (HBS) 2014, Ref. HRV_2014_HBS_v01_M. Dataset downloaded from [URL] on [date].
Disclaimer and copyrights
Disclaimer
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.