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Information about the Household Economic Survey 06/07 |
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Availability
| Valid From: .. | 06/01/2006 |
| To: .. | 06/30/2007 12:00:00 AM |
| Frequency: .. | Irregularly |
Design
Purpose: The HES collects information on household income and expenditure as well as a wide range of demographic information on individuals and households.
Objectives
- to provide itemised expenditure statistics for use in the revision of the Consumers Price Index (CPI).
- to provide expenditure and income statistics for use in preparing New Zealand’s System of National Accounts. HES data is also used to compile the Household Income and Outlay Account, which includes an estimate of household savings.
- to provide selected socio-economic statistics on households and their members. Use of HES data in modelling work has underpinned tax and benefit reforms in recent years. The income and expenditure detail can be analysed by household demographic information such as family type, enabling survey statistics to be used for socioeconomic research, analysis and policy formulation.
General Information ..Eligibility of households
Target Population
The target population consists of the usually resident population of New Zealand residents who are aged 15 plus and living in private dwellings in the North Island, South Island and Waiheke Island of New Zealand. Excluded by this definition and therefore ineligible to participate in the survey are those households which:
i. Overseas visitors who intend to stay in New Zealand for less than 12 months
ii. Non-NZ diplomats and diplomatic staff, and their dependants
iii. Member of non-NZ armed forces stationed in New Zealand and their dependants
iv. People usually resident in institutions or in other non-private dwelling establishments such as boarding houses, hotels, motels, and hostels.
v. People living on offshore islands (excluding Waiheke Island): Chatham Island, Motiti, White and any other islands.
An estimated 1,569,215 households throughout New Zealand were eligible to participate in the 2006/07 survey.
Survey population
NZ residents aged 15 plus usually resident in permanent private dwellings excluding those living in remote areas or on islands other than Waiheke except for people living in households which
- are not resident households (ie the householder has not been, or will not be, resident in New Zealand for 12 months or more);
- are not private households (ie are households which reside in hotels, motels, institutions, etc);
- are not living in permanent dwellings (ie are households which reside in tents, caravans not permanently sited, etc);
- are temporarily overseas
- someone is away 8 days or more;
Household Membership Rules
The following people are counted as members of a household:
1. all persons who normally spend four or more nights a week in the household.
2. any person who, because of the nature of his or her occupation cannot spend as many as four nights a week in the household but who:-
a) makes a financial contribution to the running of the household.
b) is not currently a member of another NZ resident private household in a permanent dwelling.
3. any person at boarding school or other non-private institution who usually spends holidays or other continuous periods at home, and whose living costs are subsidised by at least 50 percent by the household
4. any child whose custody is shared between two households but who spends more than half their time in the sampled household. Where custody/care is shared equally between two households, the child should be included in the sampled household only if they are there the night the household questionnaire is completed.
5. any person who has been in the household for at least 6 weeks prior to contact, but who will be permanently leaving the household after spending seven or more days of the diary period in the household.
6. any person who is at present staying with the household for at least seven days of the diary period and who by the time he or she leaves, will have been with the household for at least six weeks.
The 2006/07 HES uses a two stage sample selection method. The first stage sampling frame consists of a stratified collection of geographical areas called primary sampling units (PSUs). They are non-overlapping, and collectively cover all of the North and South Islands and Waiheke Island. In approximately 80 percent of cases, PSUs have between 40 and 100 households in the 2006 Census of Population and Dwellings.
The second stage sampling frame consists of lists of dwellings produced from field enumeration of the sampled PSUs. This enumeration ensures that the drawn sample adequately represents the spending patterns of all eligible households, including those established after the 2001 Census of Population and Dwellings.
Two stage sample selection process
Some important factors that have been considered in the formulation of the sample selection procedure are:
- an efficient stratification using socio-economic information from the population census to satisfy the increasing diversification of uses of the HES
- fluctuations in expenditure patterns during the survey year
- regional differences in the expenditure patterns of households
- the necessity of selecting compact clusters of households to control interviewer travel costs
- an effort to minimise the burden on respondents by ensuring that no household is selected for the HES if it has been selected for another Statistics New Zealand survey within the last 12 months.
A high degree of geographical stratification is considered desirable, together with a uniform allocation of the sample over the survey year. The second stage sample is selected using systematic random sampling within each PSU.
The HES stratification is the same as for the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS). There are 120 strata in all. New Zealand is divided into 16 regional council areas (RCAs), which form the basis for stratification. Within each RCA, strata are formed by dividing the RCAs into urban and rural strata. In most regions these urban/rural splits are further subdivided into ‘high Mäori’ and ‘low Mäori’ strata (ie high proportions of Mäori’). In Auckland and Wellington similar divisions are based on the proportion of Pacific and/or Asian Peoples in PSUs. Strata vary substantially in size. Large urban strata are stratified further by clustering PSUs on the basis of a number of socio-economic variables. New Zealand is also split up into 5 Consumer Price Index (CPI) regions. For HES06/07 a constraint was added so that the sample size for each CPI region had to meet the specified value based on the Kish method. This enables better regional estimates to be produced.
The 2006/07 HES uses a subset of 750 PSUs selected, but not used, for Survey of Family Income and Employment (SoFIE had 1500 PSUs). The allocation of the sample is organised to ensure that even geographical coverage of New Zealand occurs monthly, and that no month contains a disproportionate number of participating households.
Once the PSUs have been updated, a list of the addresses of all private dwellings in those areas is prepared from the enumeration records of the most recent Census of Population and Dwellings, and then a detailed map of the area is prepared.
The list is then updated by Statistics New Zealand staff. They visit the area, noting any additions, deletions or alterations in the dwellings that have occurred since the most recent census. For dwellings without street numbers, enumeration staff also describe the physical appearance of each dwelling for future identification.
Using the updated list, the PSUs are divided into groups of dwellings, called panels. The panels are systematically formed so that they are geographically spread over the PSU. This helps to avoid clustering which can reduce the accuracy of the survey results.
There are at least six panels in every PSU, and 4 to 16 dwellings in each panel. The HES uses the spare panels not used in SoFIE. For example if a panel has six or fewer addresses all addresses are selected for the survey. If there are more than six addresses then a random sample of six addresses is taken from the panel.
Estimates of Expenditure and Sampling Errors
Weighting of survey data
The size of the weight attributed to each responding household in the HES is designed to reflect:
- the probability of selection of the household within its PSU
- the probability of selection of the PSU within its stratum
- an adjustment to account for households which fail to respond
- population totals in some categories.
There are three stages to the weighting process:
- Firstly a weight for each household is created which depends on its probability of selection in the PSU and the probability of selection of the PSU in the stratum. This takes into account the fact that the number of PSUs in a stratum and the number of households in a PSU vary substantially. The resulting weight is called the estimation weight.
- Secondly a factor-up adjustment is made to the estimation weight to account for households in the survey who do not respond. This weight is called the response weight.
- Lastly the method known as integrated weighting is applied to the response weight to produce a final weight.
The final weight each person receives depends upon their initial sample design weight, the response rate within regions and overall, the number of people in the household, the number of households and on the age, sex and ethnic composition of the household members. In the 2006/07 HES 16 regional, 29 age by sex, two Mäori, and two household benchmarks were used. Estimates of averages and proportions are calculated using the final weights in order to obtain unbiased estimates for the population.
Integrated weighting
Integrated weighting uses externally sourced benchmarks to ensure that certain demographic characteristics of the New Zealand population not otherwise accounted for in the final weights are taken into consideration. It also ensures that every individual in the same household has the same final weight which means that the same weight can be used for both individual and household estimates. In particular it takes account of undercoverage in the survey for specified population groups, such as young males and Mäori. Integrated weighting was first introduced to HES for the 2000/2001 data release.
Statistics New Zealand believes that integrated weighting improves the robustness and accuracy of survey estimates. It reduces the effect of bias in estimates resulting from undercoverage, as well as reducing the level of sampling error for benchmark variables.
Data Collection Procedures
In all cases, contact with the selected households is made through personal visits by interviewers. The number of eligible households on the panel list is the target number of respondents for the selected area. Thus, the aim of the data collection operation is to obtain completed documents from as many eligible addresses as the financial and time constraints of the survey allow. On average this is four eligible responding households per panel.
When a household cannot be contacted on the first visit, the interviewer makes at least two further visits at different times of the day in an effort to establish contact with the household. If, after the third visit, the household has still not been contacted then the household is a non-respondent.
If an address contains more than one household, the interviewer randomly selects and surveys one household.
Each household is interviewed and then asked to keep an expenditure diary for the following two weeks.
Survey response
A total of 2,550 randomly selected households responded in the survey. In all, interviewers visited 4,667 addresses of which 431 were ineligible. Some 947 households partially or fully refused to participate and 684 did not respond for other reasons.
Reasons for non-response other than refusal included:
- the interviewer was unable to make contact with any member of the household
- the household would be departing from the dwelling before being able to complete eight days of diary keeping.
- The household cannot be interviewed due to illness or death.
The overall response rate was 62 percent, calculated by:
Response rate = (Total number of eligible responding) * 100
(Total Number of eligible responding + Total number of eligible non-responding + Estimated number of eligibles from the unknown)
Data collection documents
A comprehensive range of information was collected from each household using five documents:
1. A household questionnaire was used to gather information on the composition of the household, and on the demographic characteristics and educational experience of each household member.
2. An expenditure questionnaire for the household was used to gather expenditure and sales in areas such as housing, home maintenance, household operation, transport, holidays, health and education. Household expenditure is recalled over 12 months (generally for goods and services costing $200 or more), whereas regular commitments (such as rates, rent and telephone rental) were collected using the ‘latest payment’ approach.
3. After the expenditure questionnaire was completed, each household member aged 15 years or over was issued with an expenditure diary to record details of the items bought, and of any other money spent. Respondents can keep a diary for anywhere between 7 and 14 days:
- but it must be for seven consecutive days
- the non-completed days are replicated for 'individual' , 'joint' and 'short' diaries (for exceptions see paragraph below)
- the annualisation factor for all diary items is 26.07 regardless of how many days the diary is kept for.
- but it must be for seven consecutive days
- those seven consecutive days can be any days within the 14 day diary keeping period
- non-completed days are not replicated
4. Each household member aged 15 years or over was required to complete an income questionnaire, giving details of current employment, of any previous employment in the 12 months before the interview date, and of their income in dollar amounts by source.
Regular income data was collected by means of the ‘current approach’, which required respondents to give details of the latest amount received. They were also required to give the time period covered for that amount (such as a week or a fortnight) and the number of weeks or months in the 12 months to the interview date during which income was received from that source.
Irregular income was collected by means of the ‘recall approach’, which required respondents to give details of the total (gross) amount received from each source of irregular income in the 12 months up until the interview.
5. In addition to the above questionnaires (household, expenditure, diary and income), each eligible respondent was also required to complete an Economic Standard of Living (ELSI) short-form questionnaire (one randomly selected member of each household who is aged 18 years or over). This questionnaire collects information on material standard of living by asking questions on ownership of particular items, social participation, and the extent that people engage in cost-related economising. Respondents are also asked to rate their standard of living.
The survey flow-charts are available through the Statistics New Zealand website.
Data processing
Use of CAI as the mode of administering the survey means that routing is automatic throughout the questionnaire. A system of edits was developed so that an alert appears on-screen when an unusual response is entered, and the interviewer can verify the response and amend as necessary. Both these features lessen the potential for interviewer error, and may also result in improved data quality. Once the data is received in-house, it goes through further processing to code industry, occupation and ethnicity. The diary items also have to be captured and coded as they are received. At this stage, the data is also run through a series of edits designed to detect keying errors, outliers, invalid codes or unusual combinations of codes and so on.
Once confirmed errors are corrected, the fortnightly diary expenditure amounts are scaled up by 26.07 to give the equivalent annual expenditure, and then added to expenditure data from the already annualised expenditure questionnaire.
Statistical Unit
Household
Selection Unit
Household
Collection Unit
Household and individual
Flowcharts can be found on the following Statistics New Zealand website:
http://www.stats.govt.nz/people/work-income/household-economic-survey/default.htm
Output Variables
Output variables are pieces of individual information that can be extracted from the survey/output data. Often output variables can be cross tabulated with other output variables, for example sales by industry classification. The list below contains all current and past output variables which have been released for this survey/output.
Characteristics of each individuals in household
Characteristics of household/dwelling
ELSI
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Expenditure
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Changes in Output Variables over time
Guide to Interpreting Data
Summary of Changes to Survey/Output ..The HES is subject to revision on a three yearly basis. This can be due to the need to collect additional (or different) information for the maintenance of the weighting base of the CPI, or for changes to income related information requirements, or the addition or deletion of supplementary questions to the HES.
The survey commenced on 1 July 1973 and operated on a July to June year until 30 June 1975. It was then changed to an April to March survey year for the year ended March 1976, and it was run annually on a March year end until 1998. It then became a three yearly survey, and moved back to a July-June year. The survey was renamed the Household Economic Survey during 1993/94. It was known as the Household Expenditure and Income Survey (HEIS) from 1983/84 to 1992/93, and as the Household Survey prior to that.
In the three survey years ending March 1995, March 1996 and March 1997, a health supplement asked a series of questions on health status and the use of various health related services. These questions were asked of all people in the survey and were introduced into a revised HES as part of a plan to develop a household statistics collection strategy. One component of this strategy was to develop a capacity to include supplements into the survey. For 2000/01, an internet questionnaire was included as a supplement. It asked people to record any purchases they had made over the internet in the past year.
2000/01 was the first year of a new 3-yearly cycle. 2000/01 also saw the introduction of a new weighting methodology called Integrated Weighting, the details of which have been included in the design section. This new method has successfully been adopted and applied to back years. Backcast weights have been calculated and added to historic datasets, and the integrated weight is the one which should be used in the future.
Between the 2003/04 and 2006/07 period the Household Economic Survey (HES) underwent significant redevelopment, with major changes to the collection methodology and classifications used.
- Up until the 2006/07 survey, the HES was interviewer administered using paper questionnaires. HES now uses computer-assisted interviewing (CAI) to collect and store the data, with interviewers using laptop computers to administer most of the survey. The expenditure diary continues to be completed on paper by respondents, and this data is manually entered in the office.
- A new expenditure classification was developed to meet the need for a common household consumption classification to better align with the Consumers Price Index, National Accounts and international standards. Consequently there is a break in the expenditure time series, and 2006/07 expenditure data is not directly comparable to previous years. The income time series is relatively unaffected.
- The Economic Living Standard Index (ELSI) (short form version) questionnaire was included in HES for the first time in the 2006/07 survey.
- Other changes:
o development of a new storetype classification
o a move towards using standard classifications in other areas of the survey
o updates for real world changes (benefit titles, names of banks, other name changes)
Further details on the main changes are outline in the 'Changes' document which can be found on the SNZ website. http://www.stats.govt.nz/people/work-income/household-economic-survey/default.htm
Usage and Limitations of the Data ..2006/07 Expenditure Classification
This new classification is substantially different to the previous expenditure classification. In addition, there are methodological and questionnaire changes that have also impacted on the expenditure data. Consequently there is a break in the expenditure time series, and 2006/07 expenditure data is not directly comparable to previous years. Statisitics New Zealand has developed a concordance which will help data users to map the 2006/07 classification to the 2003/04 data - however, it should be noted that this concordance will not address the other changes in methodology and questionnaire which are also affecting time series comparability.
The income time series is relatively unaffected by these changes.
Under-reporting
See the section above on non-sample error for more information on under-reporting.
Comparisons of expenditure against income
For several reasons, care is required in making comparisons of expenditure with income from the Household Economic Survey, as the method of surveying income and expenditure does not provide for consistency at an individual respondent level.
The survey conceptually provides an accurate record of the income in the year to the interview date of each household member aged 15 years or over. The survey does however miss income for under 15 year olds.
However, in respect of income from self-employment, a person’s taxable income is his or her share of the business profit or loss. That share may bear little resemblance to the amount of money taken out of the business for personal and household spending. Even if a profit did resemble the amount of money taken out of a business for such spending, it can relate to an earlier time period than that to which the household’s survey expenditure relates.
Conceptually, the survey has a high level of variation in recording the expenditure in the year- to-interview date of a household for the following reasons.
- A household’s total expenditure on minor items during its diary-keeping fortnight may not be typical of its average fortnightly expenditure on such items in the year-to-interview date, even without the effect of inflation during that time. For example, seasonal expenditure immediately prior to Christmas.
- The expenditure that a household is allocated for regular but variable commitments such as power and toll calls is based on its latest accounts for those items, and latest accounts may not be typical for such items.
Compounding these impediments to comparisons of expenditure against income is the fact that a household’s expenditure is not always paid out of its current income. Expenditure during the year-to-interview date can be paid out of:
- regular and recurring income received in that year;
- income and other monies received in a previous period and accumulated as savings in the meantime;
- money obtained in the year-to-interview date by way of loan;
- outstanding credit;
- irregular income and money obtained in the year-to-interview date from sources such as capital gains, inheritances, and lump sum receipts from life insurance and superannuation.
In the Household Economic Survey, both regular and irregular income are surveyed.
As a consequence of the above, comparisons of total expenditure against total income and hence implicit savings (the residual of income minus expenditure) are not valid at the household level. It follows that any comparisons of average expenditure statistics against average income statistics for groups of households, to estimate savings for example, could lead to spurious results.
All table data that is released should be accompanied by a copy of Technical Notes from the 2006/07 Hot Off the Press.
Related Data Sources ..Retail Trade Survey
Electronic Data Transactions
New Zealand Income Survey
Survey of Family and Income and Employment
Consumers Price Index
Sampling Errors ..Estimates of sampling errors
For the 2006/07 HES the Jack-Knife method was used to calculate estimates of sampling errors. The Jack-Knife is a method of estimating variance that is useful for complex estimation systems. It works on the principle that if replicates (sub-samples) are taken from the parent sample, and estimates (of means, totals etc.) are created from each replicate in the same way as from the parent sample, a reasonable approximation of the parent estimate’s variance can be made by calculating the replicate estimate’s variance.
For the 2006/07 survey six to eight PSUs at a time were removed from the main sample to form replicates. This gave 100 replicates, each replicate containing all but the six to eight PSUs that were removed.
Form of the published sampling errors
The variance of the estimates is published as a sampling error relative to the estimate (ie sample error as a percentage of the estimate). The following table provides an example:
Sampling Errors of Estimated Expenditure
| Expenditure Group | Relative size of sampling error(1) |
| Percent |
| Food | 4 |
| Alcoholic beverages, tobacco, illicit drugs | 8 |
| Clothing and Footwear | 15 |
| Housing and household utilities | 7 |
| Household contents and services | 10 |
| Health | 14 |
| Transport | 8 |
| Communication | 7 |
| Recreation and Culture | 6 |
| Education | 27 |
| Miscellaneous goods and services | 9 |
| Other expenditure | 9 |
| Sales, trade-ins and refunds | 25 |
| |
| Total Net Expenditure(2) | 3 |
Each statistic in this survey is based on a sample and is subject to a relative sampling error of plus or minus a percentage of the statistic. For any expenditure category, there is a 95 percent probability that the true average weekly expenditure per household on that category, over all households that are eligible for participation in the survey, lies within the range (A-B) and (A+B) where
A = average weekly expenditure per eligible household, and
B = (A x sampling error for category / 100).
For example, there is a 95 percent probability that the true average weekly expenditure on food lies within the range
$(155.60 - (155.60 x 4 / 100)) and $(155.60 + (155.60 x 4 / 100))
or between $149.40 and $161.80.
No estimates are made of any response errors or other non-sampling errors, though it is known that expenditure on some items (such as alcohol) tends to be understated.
Non-sampling errors Under-reporting of expenditure
For some types of expenditure, the estimated amount for all private households is less than that reported from other data sources.
The main reasons for this are:
- expenditure by residents of non-private households or by those ineligible for the survey (for example, overseas visitors) is excluded from this survey
- respondents to the survey forget or omit some types of purchases - known items susceptible to under-reporting are clothing, cigarettes, alcoholic drinks, confectionery, newspapers and public transport fares
- expenditure by children aged under 15 is not recorded in the survey
- there is a bias associated with non-response that affects some statistics
For HES 2006/07, as well as those usual expenditure types mentioned above, under-reporting has also occurred for education and restaurant meals.
No adjustments were made to the data to compensate for any under-reporting. Items for which under-reporting occurs in the HES are generally consistent with items that are under-reported in similar overseas surveys.
Caveats on Release ..
Customised Output
A variety of tabular analyses can be produced on request. Such tables may include an analysis of any of the variables collected and classified in the survey. Some of these are: household income, household expenditure, household composition, household amenities, tenure of dwelling, number of income earners, sources of income, age, industry, occupation, employment status, marital status, ethnic group and the educational experience of household members. The main restrictions are due to high sample error, data quality and the need to protect respondent confidentiality.
Catalogue & Reference Numbers
Classification(s) used
Glossary of Terms
Actual rents
Those rent payments which were specified as being paid by the household, as opposed to imputed rent (the estimated benefit value from home-ownership of not having to pay rent, partly offset for home-owners by the expenses of home ownership). Imputed rent is out of scope of the HES.
Adult
An adult is a person aged 15 years or over.
Average weekly household expenditure
Sum of the weekly household expenditure of those reporting a type of expenditure, divided by the sum of households in the population.
Average expenditure statistics are calculated for all households in a particular category, not just those who reported expenditure. Any average expenditure statistic can, however, be converted into an “average expenditure per household reporting expenditure” statistic. To do get an approximate measure of this, use the data on the percentage of households reporting expenditure for the group or subgroup. Divide the published average weekly household expenditure by the corresponding percentage, then multiply the result by the percentage of households reporting expenditure on ‘net total expenditure’ for the relevant column. Alternatively, another calculation method is to multiple the weighted total number of households (1,569,215) by the percentage of households reporting expenditure for a particular expenditure code, then dividing the resulting value into the total weekly expenditure value.
Child
A child is a person of any age who usually resides with at least one parent (natural, step, adopted, or foster) and who does not usually reside with a partner or child(ren) of their own.
Decile
One-tenth of the population. The bottom decile in terms of income represents the 10 percent of the population with the lowest incomes, while the top decile represents the 10 percent of the population who receive the highest incomes.
Dependent child
The household composition classification used in the HES incorporates the concept of dependent children rather than just children. A dependent child is a ‘child in a family nucleus’ who is less than 18 years old and who is not employed full-time.
Ethnic group
A revised ethnic classification (Ethnic05) has been used to code ethnicity. Ethnicity is total response and so people can identify with more than one ethnic group.
Ethnic group
1 European
2 Maori
3 Pacific Peoples
4 Asian
5 Middle Eastern / Latin American / African
6 Other Ethnicity
9 Residual Categories
Expenditure
Total net expenditure refers to net of sales, trade-ins and refunds, whereas total gross expenditure excludes these. All expenditure includes Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Household
For survey purposes, a household relates to a ‘private household’ which is defined as:
Either
- a single individual living in a dwelling who makes his or her own housekeeping arrangements.Or
- a group of people living in or sharing a dwelling for four or more days a week, who participate in some measure at least in consumption of food purchased for joint use by members. Or who, if not dependent upon a household member, contribute some portion of income towards the provision of essentials of living for the household as a whole.
These definitions are compatible with those used for the Census of Population and Dwellings.
People living in institutions, or in establishments such as boarding houses, hotels, motels, and hostels, are not included in the survey. However, children at boarding schools are accounted for by including expenditure on behalf of those children in the record-keeping of the parent or guardian. If, at the interview stage, people occupying a permanent private dwelling can be separated into groups, with each being independent with respect to the purchase of food and the sharing of meals, then each group is considered a separate household for survey purposes.
Household composition
The household composition groups are:
Household size
The number of people present in a household is the number of people usually present in the household. A family nucleus may or may not be present in two or more person households. Households are grouped in one, two, three, four and five or more person households.
Income
In the HES, information is collected on all types of income source.
Household income is defined as the sum of gross income received by each household member aged 15 years or over from any of the sources specified below:
- wages and salaries
- self-employment income
- Work and Income New Zealand benefits and pensions, or Inland Revenue Department benefits
- income from investments
- other regular income
- irregular income
The principle used for the collection of income data, is that the actual before-tax amount received in the 12 months before the interview date, is sought from each respondent for each income source if practicable. For regular income sources for which this approach is not practical, an estimate of the respondent’s income from each such source is obtained. This is based on the latest amount received from the source, the time period covered by that amount (week, fortnight, etc.) and the number of weeks or months of the 12 months before the interview date during which income had been derived from the source.
Wages and salaries
Income received from all current and previous wage and salary jobs held over the reference period, and any job related bonuses, commissions, redundancies or other taxable income such as honoraria or directors fees. Payments for piecework and earnings-related compensation from Accident Compensation Corporation and prive work insurers is also defined as wages and salaries for output.
Self employment income
Net profit or loss received from all current and previous self-employment jobs held over the reference period, including drawings (cash or goods the respondent takes out of the business instead of receiving a 'wage').
Data on self-employment income is obtained from the latest balance sheet or profit and loss account which the respondent has readily available. Consequently, no self-employment income is allocated to a respondent whose business or partnership has not been in operation long enough for them to have received a balance sheet or profit and loss account. For a business that recorded a loss in its latest balance sheet or profit and loss account, the respondent concerned is allocated a negative amount for self-employment income, the amount being the full loss. In the case of a partnership, the amount recorded is the respondent’s share of the profit or loss.
If the respondent does not have their latest year's business accounts available at the time of the interview, an approximation or range of self-employment income is requested for the latest year. If the approximation or range questions are also unable to be answered, then information on the previous year's accounts is requested.
New Zealand superannuation and war pensions
In addition to New Zealand Superannuation, this category also includes the Veterans, War Disablement and Surviving Spouse pensions.
Other government benefits
All family assistance payments such as those under the Working for Families package are included in this source category, as well as main benefits (eg unemployment benefit), student allowances, emergency benefits and supplements.
Private superannuation income
Includes income received from both job-related superannuation schemes and other private schemes.
Investment Income
Net profit or loss received from investments such as rent, Maori land or other leased land, dividends from New Zealand companies, royalties, interest from the following:
banks
other financial institutions
bonds
stocks
money market funds
debentures or securities
Other sources of regular and recurring income
Includes income received from trusts, annuities, alimony, educational scholarships, and income protection insurance.
Irregular Income
Irregular income includes income received from inheritances, matrimonial settlement, lump sum life insurance pay outs, lump sum bursaries and prizes, and gifts of money from other New Zealand households. This income type is collected on a “gross amount received in the 12 months to interview date” basis.
Industry
Industry is coded to the three-digit level of the Australia and New Zealand Standard Industry Classification (ANZSIC06).
Labour force status
The labour force category to which a person is assigned depends on his or her actual activity during a survey reference week. The following definitions, which conform closely to the international standard definitions specified by the International Labour Organisation, are used:
Working-age population
The working-age population for the HES is the civilian usually resident non-institutionalised population aged 15 years or over living in private households.
Labour force
Members of the working-age population are classified as ‘employed’, ‘unemployed’ or 'not in the labour force' as defined below.
The employed
All people in the working-age population who at time of interview:
- worked for one hour or more for pay or profit in the context of an employee/employer relationship or self-employment;
- worked without pay for one hour or more in employment which contributed directly to the operation of a farm, business or professional practice owned or operated by a relative. Prior to April 1990, it was defined as 15 hours or more;
- had a job but were not at work due to:
– personal or family responsibilities,
– bad weather or mechanical breakdown,
– direct involvement in an industrial dispute,
– leave or holiday.
The unemployed
All people in the working-age population who during their reference week were without a paid job, were available for work and:
- had actively sought work in the past four weeks ending with the reference week;
- had a new job to start within four weeks.
A person whose only job search method in the previous four weeks has been to look at job advertisements in the newspapers is not considered to be actively seeking work.
People not in the labour force
Any person who is neither employed nor unemployed, as defined above, is not in the labour force. This residual category includes, for example:
- retired people;
- people with personal or family responsibilities such as unpaid housework and childcare;
- people attending educational institutions;
- people permanently unable to work due to physical or mental disability;
- people who were temporarily unavailable for work in the survey reference week;
- people who are not actively seeking work.
Occupation
Occupation is coded to the three-digit level of the Australia and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO06).
Percentage of households reporting
Sum of the households reporting a type of expenditure, divided by the sum of the number of households in the population.
Quintile
One-fifth of the population. The bottom quintile in terms of income represents the 20 percent of the population with the lowest incomes, while the top quintile represents the 20 percent of the population who receive the highest incomes.
Region
The HES sample design allows for a regional break-down to the level of five broad regions. Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury regional council areas, and the remaining regional council areas are grouped as Rest of North Island and Rest of South Island.
Rest of North Island
Consists of Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki and Manawatu-Wanganui regional council areas.
Rest of South Island
Consists of Nelson, Marlborough, Tasman, West Coast, Otago and Southland regional council areas.
Contact Details
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Liability
Statistics New Zealand gives no warranty that the information or data supplied contains no errors. However, all care and diligence has been used in processing, analysing and extracting the information. Statistics New Zealand shall not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by the customer consequent upon the use directly, or indirectly, of the information supplied in this product.
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