Title
Household Income, Expenditure, and Consumption Survey, HIECS 2012/2013
Series information
The first survey of income and expenditure, planned to be a pilot one, was undertaken in 1955. It was planned and carried out by the Committee of Statistic in three villages of Giza governorate on a sample of 750 households where the total sampling frame in this area was 4000 households.
In 1958/59, the first national survey was conducted in all governorates of Egypt on a sample of 6376 households distributed between urban and rural areas with a percentage of 51.5% and 48.5% respectively. All sample households were observed for the entire survey period (12 month).
In 1964/65, the second survey was conducted on a sample of 13818 households allocated between urban and rural areas such as 67.6% for urban and 32.4%for rural households. With the aim of reducing the burden on surveyed households, the whole sample was divided into four sub-samples where households of each sub-sample were observed for only three consecutive months.
In 1974/75, the third survey was carried out on a sample of 11995 households allocated between urban and rural areas in a similar way as the second survey. Like the second survey, households were observed only for three successive months.
In 1981/82, the fourth survey was conducted on a sample of 17000 households distributed equally between urban and rural areas. A new observation methodology, combing fixed and changeable observation of surveyed households, has been applied. A sub- sample of 1000 households were observed all over the survey period (12 months) while the remaining 16000 households were observed on a changeable basis.
In 1990/91, the name of household budgetary survey changed to income, expenditure and consumption survey. Under the new name, the fifth survey was conducted on a sample of 15000 households distributed between urban and rural areas with the percentage of 60% for urban and 40% for rural. The entire sample was divided into 12 sub-samples, each were observed for only one month.
In 1995/96, the sixth survey was conducted on a sample of 15090 households allocated between urban and rural areas such as 45.1% in urban and 54.9% in rural. The same observation scheme of the previous survey was applied, i.e., households were observed for one month only.
In 1999/2000, the seventh survey was conducted on a sample of 48000 households (4000 household monthly) distributed between urban and rural areas with the percentage of 60% for urban and 40% for rural.(households were observed for one month only).
In 2004/2005, the eighth survey was conducted on a sample of 48000 households (4000 households monthly) distributed in urban and rural areas with the percentage of 46.4% for urban and 53.6% rural (households were observed for one month only).
In 2008/2009 the ninth in the series was conducted on a sample of 48658 households (2000 households every 15 days) distributed between urban and rural areas with the percentage of 47.2% for urban and 52.8% rural.(households were observed every 15 days).
In 2010/2011, the tenth survey was conducted on a sample of 26.5 thousand households, out of which 16.5 thousands were new households and 10 thousands were panel households. 1100 household were collected every 15 days distributed between urban and rural areas with the percentage of 47.1% for urban and 52.9% rural (surveyed households were changed every 15 days).
The current survey is the eleventh survey that was carried out in 2012/2013 on a sample of 24863 households, out of which 16094 thousands were new households and 8769 thousands were panel households. 1036 household were collected every 15 days distributed between urban and rural areas with the percentage of 45.4% for urban and 54.6% rural (surveyed households were changed every 15 days).
Abstract
<p style="border:solid thin black;"> THE CLEANED AND HARMONIZED VERSION OF THE SURVEY DATA PRODUCED AND PUBLISHED BY THE ECONOMIC RESEARCH FORUM REPRESENTS 50% OF THE ORIGINAL SURVEY DATA COLLECTED BY THE CENTRAL AGENCY FOR PUBLIC MOBILIZATION AND STATISTICS (CAPMAS) </p>
The Household Income, Expenditure and Consumption Survey (HIECS) is of great importance among other household surveys conducted by statistical agencies in various countries around the world. This survey provides a large amount of data to rely on in measuring the living standards of households and individuals, as well as establishing databases that serve in measuring poverty, designing social assistance programs, and providing necessary weights to compile consumer price indices, considered to be an important indicator to assess inflation.
The First Survey that covered all the country governorates was carried out in 1958/1959 followed by a long series of similar surveys . The current survey, HIECS 2012/2013, is the eleventh in this long series.
Starting 2008/2009, Household Income, Expenditure and Consumption Surveys were conducted each two years instead of five years. this would enable better tracking of the rapid changes in the level of the living standards of the Egyptian households.
CAPMAS started in 2010/2011 to follow a panel sample of around 40% of the total household sample size. The current survey is the second one to follow a panel sample. This procedure will provide the necessary data to extract accurate indicators on the status of the society.
The CAPMAS also is pleased to disseminate the results of this survey to policy makers, researchers and scholarly to help in policy making and conducting development related researches and studies
The survey main objectives are:
- To identify expenditure levels and patterns of population as well as socio- economic and demographic differentials.
- To measure average household and per-capita expenditure for various expenditure items along with socio-economic correlates.
- To Measure the change in living standards and expenditure patterns and behavior for the individuals and households in the panel sample, previously surveyed in 2008/2009, for the first time during 12 months representing the survey period.
- To define percentage distribution of expenditure for various items used in compiling consumer price indices which is considered important indicator for measuring inflation.
- To estimate the quantities, values of commodities and services consumed by households during the survey period to determine the levels of consumption and estimate the current demand which is important to predict future demands.
- To define average household and per-capita income from different sources.
- To provide data necessary to measure standard of living for households and individuals. Poverty analysis and setting up a basis for social welfare assistance are highly dependent on the results of this survey.
- To provide essential data to measure elasticity which reflects the percentage change in expenditure for various commodity and service groups against the percentage change in total expenditure for the purpose of predicting the levels of expenditure and consumption for different commodity and service items in urban and rural areas.
- To provide data essential for comparing change in expenditure against change in income to measure income elasticity of expenditure.
- To study the relationships between demographic, geographical, housing characteristics of households and their income.
- To provide data necessary for national accounts especially in compiling inputs and outputs tables.
- To identify consumers behavior changes among socio-economic groups in urban and rural areas.
- To identify per capita food consumption and its main components of calories, proteins and fats according to its nutrition components and the levels of expenditure in both urban and rural areas.
- To identify the value of expenditure for food according to its sources, either from household production or not, in addition to household expenditure for non-food commodities and services.
- To identify distribution of households according to the possession of some appliances and equipments such as (cars, satellites, mobiles ,…etc) in urban and rural areas that enables measuring household wealth index.
- To identify the percentage distribution of income earners according to some background variables such as housing conditions, size of household and characteristics of head of household.
- To provide a time series of the most important data related to dominant standard of living from economic and social perspective. This will enable conducting comparisons based on the results of these time series. In addition to, the possibility of performing geographical comparisons.
Compared to previous surveys, the current survey experienced certain peculiarities, among which :
1- The total sample of the current survey (24.9 thousand households) is divided into two sections:
a- A new sample of 16.1 thousand households. This sample was used to study the geographic differences between urban governorates, urban and rural areas, and frontier governorates as well as other discrepancies related to households characteristics and household size, head of the household's education status, ....... etc.
b- A panel sample of 2008/2009 survey data of around 8.8 thousand households was selected to accurately study the changes that may have occurred in the households' living standards over the period between the two surveys and over time in the future since CAPMAS will continue to collect panel data for HIECS in the coming years.
2- Some additional questions that showed to be important based on previous surveys results, were added to the survey questionnaire, such as:
a- The extent of health services provided to monitor the level of services available in the Egyptian society. By collecting information on the in-kind transfers, the household received during the year; in order to monitor the assistance the household received from different sources government, association,..etc.
b- Identifying the main outlet of fabrics, clothes and footwear to determine the level of living standards of the household.
3- Quality control procedures especially for fieldwork are increased, to ensure data accuracy and avoid any errors in suitable time, as well as taking all the necessary measures to guarantee that mistakes are not repeated, with the application of the principle of reward and punishment.
The raw survey data provided by the Statistical Agency were cleaned and harmonized by the Economic Research Forum, in the context of a major project that started in 2009. During which extensive efforts have been exerted to acquire, clean, harmonize, preserve and disseminate micro data of existing household surveys in several Arab countries.