6535.0 - Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: Detailed Expenditure Items, 1998-99
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 27/09/2000
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SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AVERAGE WEEKLY HOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURE ON GOODS AND SERVICES Average household expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages was $127 per week. The most significant items of food expenditure were:
Expenditure on transport amounted to $118 per week. The most significant items were motor vehicle purchase ($43), petrol ($24) and vehicle registration and insurance ($20). Current housing costs amounted to $97 per week. Of this, $38 was spent on rent and $26 on interest payments on home mortgages. Household spending on recreation averaged $89 per week. Expenditure on holidays within Australia ($16) and overseas ($12) together accounted for 31% of spending on recreation. Other significant items were books, newspapers and magazines ($8); audiovisual equipment ($7); animal expenses ($6); gambling ($6); sports fees and charges ($5); and cultural fees and charges ($5). AVERAGE WEEKLY HOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURE ON RECREATION Average household expenditure on other significant broad groups of goods and services was:
CHANGES SINCE 1993-94 In the period from 1993-94 to 1998-99, the average household weekly expenditure on goods and services increased from $602 to $699. Part of this 16% increase can be attributed to inflation - over the five years since the previous survey, the price of goods and services, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), rose by 10%. Over the same period, average weekly household income increased by 22% and the average household size was unchanged at 2.6 people. Comparing data in this publication to that shown in the 1993-94 issue, the broad categories accounting for most of the $97 increase in average weekly expenditure since 1993-94 were:
EXPLANATORY NOTES INTRODUCTION 1 This is the second publication presenting the results from the 1998-99 Household Expenditure Survey (HES). The survey collected detailed information about the expenditure, income and household characteristics of households resident in private dwellings throughout Australia. Appendix 1 outlines the full 1998-99 HES data release program and expected release dates. 2 This publication presents estimates for over 400 items of household expenditure. Average weekly household expenditure on these items is provided for each income quintile group, and for each state, Darwin and Canberra. Some estimates with high relative standard errors have been suppressed in this publication. However, tables incorporating these estimates are available. See appendix 1 for details. 3 The 1998-99 Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: User Guide (Cat. no. 6527.0), expected to be released in September 2000, will assist users in evaluating and interpreting results from this survey. 4 The 1998-99 HES is similar to the 1993-94 survey. The main differences are:
5 The 1998-99 HES commenced field enumeration throughout Australia in July 1998. Field enumeration was completed in June 1999. Further information concerning the 1998-99 survey and the five earlier surveys conducted in 1974-75, 1975-76, 1984, 1988-89 and 1993-94 can be obtained from the 1998-99 User Guide (Cat. no. 6527.0). CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 6 The concepts and definitions of income, expenditure and households in the HES are described in the following section. Refer to the Glossary for the definitions of other HES terms. Households 7 The household is the basic unit of analysis in the HES. It is defined as a person or group of people who usually live in the same dwelling and make common provision for food and other essentials of living. 8 Households therefore have the following characteristics:
9 The household is adopted as the basic unit of analysis because it is assumed that sharing of the use of goods and services occurs at this level. If smaller units, say persons, are adopted, then it is difficult to know how to attribute to individual household members the use of shared items such as food, accommodation and household goods. Expenditure 10 The HES estimates of expenditure on goods and services refer to:
12 Estimates of average weekly expenditure do not refer to a given week. Average weekly expenditure was calculated by dividing expenditure by the number of weeks in the recall period or reporting period over which it was collected. 13 Expenditure was classified according to the Household Expenditure Classification. A copy of the classification is included in the 1998-99 User Guide (Cat. no. 6527.0). Income 14 Although the HES is primarily a survey of household expenditure, household income estimates are produced to help explain variations in expenditure levels and patterns and to identify groups of special interest (e.g. households with low incomes). 15 HES estimates of income refer to:
See description of expenditure in-kind, above, for inclusions. 17 Estimates of weekly income do not refer to a given week. Income was collected using a number of different reporting periods, such as the last financial year for own business and property income and last pay for wages and salaries and other sources of private income. Reported income was divided by the number of weeks in the reporting period to obtain weekly income. 18 Income was collected according to source. Main sources of income include employee income, own business income, government pensions and allowances and other income (including property income such as rent, interest and dividends and other transfer income such as regular recurring receipts from superannuation and child support). Difference between income and expenditure 19 The HES provides information about both the income and expenditure and the expenditure of households, but it would be misleading to regard the difference between average weekly income and the sum of the items of average weekly expenditure as shown in the tables in this publication as a measure of saving. 20 First, to be properly understood, the concept of household saving needs to be articulated along with the concept of household wealth (assets less liabilities), and all forms of income and expenditure need to be measured and classified consistently with these concepts. The HES does not attempt to do this. For example, the HES measure of income does not include capital gains or windfall gains such as inheritances. Rather, it focuses on the regular and recurring forms of income; expenditure on current consumption of goods and services; the major component of regular current transfers (income tax); and three major items of expenditure which can be regarded as investment ('mortgage repayments - principal (selected dwelling)', other capital housing costs' and 'superannuation and life insurance'). The three items of investment expenditure are included in the HES because they are a significant regular commitment of many households which have to be financed from regular income. 21 Second, there are significant timing differences between the different components of income and expenditure collected:
22 The timing problem is likely to be greatest for households for which the major source of income is unincorporated business activity. Recorded income will relate to the previous financial year, while expenditure will mostly relate to a period within the current financial year. If business profitability is significantly different between the two years, then there may be a significant discrepancy between the recorded income and expenditure components which do not reflect the saving pattern of the household. While such differences will disappear to a certain extent through summing across households, there may still be an impact on aggregate estimates if, for example, all farmers had a bad season in one year and a good season in the following year. More importantly, there will be a definite impact on the quintile analysis of HES data. 23 HES income and expenditure estimates therefore do not balance for individual households or for groups of households and the difference between income and expenditure cannot be considered to be a measure of saving. SCOPE AND COVERAGE Scope 24 Residents of private dwellings in all areas of Australia except remote and sparsely settled areas were in scope. Also excluded were households containing foreign defence force staff, foreign diplomats or diplomatic staff.
Coverage 25 Information was collected only from usual residents. Usual residents were residents who regarded the dwelling as their own or main home. Others present were considered to be visitors and were not asked to participate in the survey. DATA COLLECTION 26 Information for each household was collected using:
SURVEY DESIGN AND ESTIMATION Sample design 28 The sample was designed to produce reliable estimates for households resident in private dwellings aggregated for Australia, for each state and for the capital cities in each state and territory. Of the selected dwellings, there were 8,908 in the scope of the survey, of which 6,893 (77%) were included as part of the final estimates. Responding households 29 Of the households selected in the sample, there were 2,015 which did not contribute to the values of HES expenditure or income. Such households included those who could not be contacted, had language problems, refused to participate, or were affected by death or illness of a household member. Also excluded were those in which the reference person or spouse did not respond to key questions in the survey such as income. Imputation 30 Of the households which provided most of the required HES information but were unable, or unwilling, to provide all of it, some were able to be retained in the sample and their missing values deduced or imputed. 31 For some of these households, missing information could be deduced using additional information supplied on the questionnaire (such as prices for given quantities and types of bread and milk purchased from given types of outlets). 32 In the remainder of cases, the missing information was imputed. Imputation is the process of replacing missing values with substitute values during processing. Imputation was carried out at two levels:
34 To better match donors to recipient records, both sets of records were ordered according to characteristics (such as number of adults and children present) associated with the blocks of variables being imputed. Recipients with missing information were matched with donors who fell into the same classes as themselves. Final sample 35 The sample on which estimates were based, or the final HES sample, is composed of households for which all necessary information is available. The information may have been wholly provided at the interview or may have been completed through imputation for partially responding households. The 1998-99 HES final sample includes approximately 600 households which had at least one imputed value. Over 40% of these households had only a single value missing. HES FINAL SAMPLE: NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS, 1998-99
Weighting 36 Expansion factors, or weights, are values by which information for sample households is multiplied to produce estimates for the whole population. 37 Initial weights, based on the sample design, were equal to the inverse of the probability of selection. Weights for each member of the household were the same as the weight for the household itself. 38 In previous surveys, these initial weights have been adjusted to account for non-response. For the 1998-99 HES the demographic and geographic information available for non-respondents was analysed to determine whether a strong relationship existed between household non-response and its demographic and geographic characteristics. No strong relationship was detected so no adjustment to the initial weights to account for non-response was required. Benchmarking 39 To adjust for under-enumeration and to align survey estimates with independent population estimates, the weights were calibrated against person and household benchmarks. Using an iterative procedure, the weights were adjusted so that person and household estimates conformed with external person and household benchmarks. The two person benchmarks which were used are: state/territory population estimates by eight age categories (including 65 years and over); and labour force status estimates (from Labour Force Survey data) by capital city / balance of state or territory by sex by five age categories. The two household benchmarks were: nine categories of household composition (including lone person household) by capital city / balance of state or territory; and state by capital city / balance of state or territory. 40 The household benchmarks were based on provisional estimates of numbers of households in Australia. The benchmarks were adjusted to include households and persons residing in private dwellings only and therefore do not, and are not intended to, match estimates of the total Australian resident population published in other ABS publications. 41 The benchmarks do not include people living in sparsely settled areas in the Northern Territory. Estimation 42 Estimates produced from the survey are usually in the form of averages (e.g. average weekly household expenditure on clothing and footwear), or counts (e.g. total number of households who own their dwelling). For counts, the estimate was obtained by summing the weights of the responding households in the required group (e.g. those households owning their dwelling). Averages were obtained by adding the weighted household values, and then dividing by the estimated number of households. For example, average weekly expenditure on clothing and footwear by Victorian households is the weighted sum of the average weekly expenditure of each selected household in Victoria who reported such expenditure, divided by the estimated number of households in Victoria. Note that the denominator is the total number of households and not just the number of households which have reported expenditure on the particular item. 43 Income tax payments were estimated for all households using taxation criteria for 1998-99 and the income and other characteristics of household members reported in the survey. Reliability of estimates 44 The estimates provided in this publication are subject to two types of error. Non-sampling error 45 Non-sampling error can occur whether the estimates are derived from a sample or from a complete collection. Three major sources of non-sampling error are:
46 Non-sampling errors are difficult to measure in any collection. However, every effort was made to minimise these errors. In particular, the effect of the reporting and processing errors described above was minimised by careful questionnaire design, intensive training and supervision of interviewers, asking respondents to refer to records whenever possible and by extensive editing and quality control checking at all stages of data collection and processing. 47 The error due to non-response was minimised by:
48 The HES estimates are based on a sample of possible observations. Hence, they are subject to sampling variability and estimates may differ from the figures that would have been produced if information had been collected for all households. Further information on sampling error is given in appendix 2. PUBLICATION AND DISSEMINATION OF DATA 49 Information about the range of data to be made available from the 1998-99 HES is given in appendix 1. Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window.
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