6523.0 - Household Income and Wealth, Australia, 2013-14 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 04/09/2015   
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INTRODUCTION


The 2013–14 cycle of the Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) collected information about income, wealth and other household characteristics from residents in private dwellings in Australia. It combines data on income and wealth that were previously presented in two separate publications:


The SIH provides estimates of the distribution of income and wealth across the population, by various characteristics of households (e.g. income and wealth quintiles, main source of income, wealth, household type, tenure and employment status).

To demonstrate the potential of the SIH, this publication includes three case studies that explore how income and wealth vary for three types of households. These case studies give an overview of the economic wellbeing of couple families with dependent children, one parent families with dependent children and older households.

This issue is the first fully electronic release of SIH data, with separate Excel data cubes available from the ‘Downloads’ tab of this publication, by subpopulations including a range of household characteristics (such as income quintiles), and by state and territory.

An additional data cube on Imputed Rent will be released as part of this publication in late 2015.

ABOUT THE SURVEY OF INCOME AND HOUSING

The SIH was conducted annually from 1994–95 to 1997–98, and then in 1999–2000, 2000–01 and 2002–03. Commencing in 2003–04 the SIH has been conducted every two years, and has been integrated with the Household Expenditure Survey (HES) every six years. In 2003–04 and 2009–10 the SIH was integrated with the HES, as it will be again in 2015–16. In 2005–06, 2007–08, 2011–12, and 2013–14, the SIH was run as a stand-alone survey.

The 2013–14 SIH collected information from a sample of 14,162 households over the period July 2013 to June 2014. The key topics of the SIH are income, wealth and housing characteristics.

CHANGES IN THIS CYCLE

Key changes in 2013–14 compared with 2011–12 include:
  • Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2011 has been used throughout the survey for sample selection, weighting and output. At the sub-state level, this required a break in the time series, with 2013–14 survey including Greater Capital City Statistical Area. Previous surveys used the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC);
  • the expansion in the 2009–10 sample for an extra 4,200 households outside capital cities to support housing indicator reporting was maintained in the 2011–12 and 2013–14 cycles;
  • this cycle of SIH includes extra housing information last collected in 2007–08;
  • an item identifying carers has been added;
  • a new model of imputed rent has been designed and implemented, which will be available in an additional release;
  • data on the new Dad and Partner Pay subsidy has been collected;
  • selected social transfers in kind variables have been modelled in 2013–14;
  • a decrease in fully responding sample size from 14,569 households in 2011–12 to 14,162 households in 2013–14 due to increased sample loss and slightly lower response rates, this had little impact on the key estimates;
  • additional information about lump sums drawn from superannuation;
  • franking credits were previously partly modelled and added to disposable income. For 2013-14, franking credits were modelled for all income from dividends and added to gross income; and
  • inclusion of questions on disability status, concession cards held, educational institution attended and private health expenditure that were last collected in the 2009–10 HES.