In the Income and living conditions survey data are collected about households' and people's income and other factors contributing to economic livelihood and about living conditions. The data are used for compiling national income distribution statistics and the Living Conditions Survey (EU-SILC) produced for the European Union by combining data collected by interviews from households and register data. Interviews are used to gather most of household classification data and living conditions data and those income data that are not available from registers. The majority of the survey data derive from administrative registers and statistical registers. The gross sample of the data is around 16,000 households each year. The interviews are primarily made by telephone. The duration of the interview part is about 25 minutes in the first interview. In the next waves, the duration is shorter.
The population of the statistics comprises private households permanently living in Finland, i.e. the so-called household population. Excluded from the survey are those living permanently (i.e. for over one year) abroad, those without address and the institutional population (e.g. long-term residents of old people's homes, nursing homes, prisons or hospitals). The data collection for the Income and living conditions survey is carried out in the early part of the year concerning the previous year. The same household is included in the sample either in two or four consecutive years. The interviewees are informed at the start of the inquiry how many years the household concerned is to be included in the sample. Households are selected to the interview by a representative sample from Statistics Finland's databases concerning the population by socio-economic group and income bracket. Socio-economic groups are employees, own-account workers in agriculture, other own-account workers, pensioners and others.
The Statistics Act (280/2004) obliges Statistics Finland to treat the data as confidential. In the statistics to be published the data are reported in statistical form. Individual observations are not disclosed.
Last updated 21.5.2013
Income and living conditions survey
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