Norway

Title: The Income Distribution Survey 2000

GENERAL INFORMATION AND BASIC DEFINITIONS

1. Background

Further information is available from Statistics Norway, e-mail: jep@ssb.no.
Data have been collected by household survey since 1958. 1

2. Purpose and coverage

The following purposes are considered to be very important or of some importance:
Lesser importance is attached to:

Geographic coverage: National with the following geographic areas excluded: residents of Spitsbergen .

Population coverage:
The following types of household are included in the data collection:
The following types of household are excluded in the data collection:

Units: Dwelling units are not used in the sample selection.
Data are recorded for the household unit which is characterised by:

Unit members: Usual residents temporarily living away from the dwelling are included, if away continuously for less than 6 months. Visitors (not usual residents) temporarily living in the dwelling are not included as unit members. Domestic staff living in same dwelling/compound are included in the unit. Renters living in same dwelling/compound are not included in the unit. Boarders living in same dwelling/compound are not included in the unit.

Head of unit:
The concept of head of household/other unit is used in this survey and is characterised by:

3. Reference periods

The time period to which income and/or expenditure statistics refer when released/published is from 01/00 to 12/00. These data are collected in the period from 10/00 to 10/01. This survey is conducted annually. The statistics are published annually.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

4. Sample design

The Primary, Secondary and Ultimate Sampling Units are enumeration area/district, household and household respectively.

Stratification:
Areas/districts were stratified using the following criteria:

The sampling frames for the Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) and Ultimate Sampling Unit (USU) were a set of administrative registers (or combination of such registers) and a set of administrative registers (or combination of such registers) respectively. Primary Sampling Units (PSU) were selected using probability proportional to size. The sample size was 13000 households or other units and 13000 interviews. 2 The overall response rate for the survey was 72 percent.

Enumeration procedure: Enumeration uses a single round survey design in which each reporting unit is enumerated only once. The sample is not divided into representative sub-samples. No action is taken to select a smaller set of reporting units for more detailed questioning.

DATA COLLECTION, CONCEPTS, DEFINITIONS AND CLASSIFICATIONS

5. Income data

Income data are collected. Receipts do not have to be regular and recurring to be considered as income. Income includes receipts resulting from the sale or reduction of assets and/or from incurring liabilities are included in income. Income excludes receipts that are not currently available to the unit.

The following receipts are collected separately:
The following receipts are collected but not separately:
The following receipts are not collected:
The following receipts are classified as income from paid employment:
The following receipts are classified as income from self-employment:
The following receipts are classified as property income:
The following receipts are classified as employment-related transfer income:
The following receipts are classified as transfer income but not employment-related:
The following receipts are collected using the last 12 months as the reference period:

Income data were collected separately for each person receiving income. Components of income for an individual were collected register data . Negative values (business losses) were included when computing self-employment income.

6. Expenditure data

7. Other Data Collection Issues

The following other topics are covered:

Households are not requested to indicate whether durable goods are new or second-hand when their acquisition is recorded.

Non-response: There is no substitution for non-response, whether by non-contact or by refusal.

Non-response is reduced using more than one repeat visits. Reporting errors are reduced using register data.

DATA PROCESSING, ANALYSIS AND DISSEMINATION

Answers are not pre-coded on data collection forms, but are coded by not relevant. All income data collected from registers .

The responses are edited by the following: 4

Extreme values are amended. In-kind receipts and consumption of own production are included in the estimates. In-kind receipts are valued using: taxation values Consumption of own production is valued using: taxation values

Treatment of owner-occupied housing: Values of owner-occupied housing are not included in the total income/expenditure estimates.

Treatment of selected groups/values in analysis: No households/units are excluded from analysis because of incomplete response. Missing values are by not relevant, register data. Supplementary sources are used to adjust estimates for under- or over-reporting. No groups are excluded from data analysis.

Weighting:
Weighting factors are used to adjust for:

Sampling errors: Sampling errors are computed for major aggregates and these sampling errors are published.

Tabulation and Analysis: Statistics are presented showing averages per year and statistics are analysed and tabulated for households only.

The following classifications are used for tabulation and analysis of income statistics:

Documentation and Dissemination:
Published survey reports: Income and Property Statistics for Households 1997/1999, Jan. 2000
Published methodological information: Income and Property Statistics for Households 2000, May ,2002

Additional statistics (or special tables on request) are available for public use, with charges.

Separate tables are published for the following special population groups:
Files of unidentifiable unit data are available (or available on request) for public use, free of charge.


(1) Data have also been compiled through administrative registrations since 1958. (2) The Income Distribution Survey combines information from surveys and registers. The only information collected from the intreview is household composition. In case of non-response, information on family composition from register data (slight ly different from the household concept) substitute information on household composition. (3) In cases of no-response missing interview data on househol d composition are substituted with register data on family composition from administrative registers. (4) Only relevant in respect to Hh composition. All other data collected from registers.