6530.0 - Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: Summary of Results, 2009-10  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 06/09/2011   
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ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION

This publication presents a summary of the results from the 2009-10 Household Expenditure Survey (HES), which was a subsample of the households comprising the 2009-10 Survey of Income and Housing (SIH). The HES collected information on the expenditure, income, net worth and other characteristics of households resident in private dwellings throughout Australia.

This publication includes a feature article on government pension and allowance recipients. The article highlights the benefits of the significantly increased sample size for this sub population in this survey.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

Key changes to the 2009-10 HES include:

  • an increase in the sample size from 6,957 households in 2003-04 to 9,774 households in 2009-10 due to the inclusion of an additional sample of metropolitan households whose main source of income was a government pension, benefit and/or allowance
  • improvements, aligning with international statistical standards, to the collection of income statistics
  • the incorporation of non-cash benefits used by employees to improve the coverage of consumption expenditure and to ensure consistency with the conceptual treatment of income
  • a small number of changes to some Household Expenditure Classification (HEC) categories, particularly to address emerging technologies between the survey cycles
  • disability questions for persons aged 15 years and over were asked in the 2009-10 HES (last collected in HES in 1998-99)
  • the inclusion of tables in this publication showing income and expenditure patterns for beneficiaries of government pensions and allowances by their sources
  • the inclusion of a table in this publication showing household expenditure at the broad level for the Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP)
  • the inclusion of a table in this publication showing financial stress indicators by equivalised disposable household income quintiles
  • an expanded range of detailed tables are included in an Excel datacube on the website, including detailed expenditure estimates on over 600 HEC categories for selected populations in this publication, plus additional populations available from the survey
  • a comparison between the HES expenditure estimates and the Australian System of National Accounts is included in this publication.


EFFECTS OF ROUNDING

Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals. Published percentages are calculated prior to rounding of the figures and therefore some discrepancy may exist between these percentages and those that could be calculated from the rounded figures.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Living Conditions on Canberra (02) 6252 6174, email <living.conditions@abs.gov.au>.