The primary purpose of the HBS is to ensure that the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the official measure of inflation, continues to be based on up-to-date and accurate household expenditure. The data collected in the HBS is used to measure the cost of living in Ireland.
Information for this publication was collected from October 2022 to October 2023. The achieved sample size for HBS 2022-2023 was 1,737 households.
The data collection process was carried out by a team Temporary Part-Time Field Interviewers. Each household that participated in the HBS completed a detailed household questionnaire which included questions on tenure status, household appliances, and housing costs (e.g. mortgage, rent). Each household member aged 16 years and over completed a personal questionnaire which included questions on income, education, work status and other demographic related questions. Data capture for both personal and household questionnaires was by means of CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing). All household members aged 16 and over were also required to fill in a paper diary over a two-week period, detailing their day to day personal expenditure over this period. Respondents also recorded regular outgoings such as utilities, television subscriptions, car insurance and direct debits in these diaries.
A copy of the paper diary is available here Household Budget Survey 2022-2023 Diary (PDF 902KB)
Households were accepted as co-operating only if all the required data was provided and each household member aged sixteen years and over kept an expenditure diary. The refusal of one member to co-operate could result in the whole household being eliminated. These strict participation criteria contributed to the relatively high non-response rates which are traditionally experienced in the Household Budget Survey.
In addition, CSO uses administrative data sources in its statistical programs to complement or replace survey data, to make its statistical operations more efficient or to create new insights or products. These data enable CSO to fill information needs about the Irish society, economy and environment, reduce response burden and costs imposed by surveys, and improve data quality and timeliness. All data obtained by CSO are used solely for statistical purposes.
The administrative data sources are the Department of Social Protection (DSP) social welfare data, Office of the Revenue Commissioners’ Income Tax Form 11 and PAYE Income data, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Animal Identification and Movement Data, Student Universal Support Ireland Grant Application and Payment Data, Local Authority HAP Shared Services Centre Housing Assistance Payments and the Residential Tenancies Board Rent Data. The CSO continues to work with these sources to ensure good quality data is available on a timely basis.
An introductory letter was sent to all sample households prior to the Interviewer’s visit explaining the nature and purpose of the survey.
Although the co-operation of sample households was mainly canvassed by Interviewers on the basis of the importance of the survey and the usefulness of the results (e.g. for Consumer Price Index reweighting), response also benefited from an inducement offered to each person aged sixteen years and over in co-operating households in appreciation of their participation. If a sample household satisfactorily co-operated in the survey, they were given a gratuity payment.
In 2022/2023, a new sampling methodology was introduced to improve the robustness of the HBS Sample. The following is a brief overview of the revised HBS sample methodology, from which HBS 2022/2023 was selected:
Design weights were calculated for all units selected in the initial sample and were computed as the inverse of the selection probability of the unit. The purpose of design weights is to eliminate the bias induced by unequal selection probabilities.
These design weights were then adjusted for non-response. This eliminated the bias induced by discrepancies caused by non-response between the initial sample and the achieved sample. This is particularly critical when the non-responding households are different from the responding ones in respect to some survey variables as this may create substantial bias in the estimates. Design weights are adjusted for non-response by dividing the design weights of each responding unit in the final/achieved sample by the (weighted) response probability of the corresponding group or strata.
In accordance with Eurostat recommendation, CALMAR was used to calculate the household cross-sectional weights. Benchmark information was used to gross up the data to population estimates. The benchmark estimates were based on:
Due to the “integrative” calibration method, the personal weight generated in CALMAR is equal to the household weight.
The target population for HBS are private households in the State. As such, specific benchmark totals, to which the survey is calibrated, have been created to best reflect this.
The count of private dwellings is derived from Census, using interpolation and supplementary administrative data on new dwelling for intercensal years. To account for the shared income and expenditure definition of a household, a two-stage calibration process is used wherein the calibrated dwelling weights are applied to any multiple households within a dwelling.
All expenditure diaries completed by HBS household members were collected by interviewers and returned to the CSO in Cork. A processing team in the CSO scanned diary and receipt items included in the diaries into a data processing system. Each item was assigned a COICOP (Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose) code. Data range checks were carried out to ensure cleanliness of data provided.
The overall response rate for the HBS 2022-2023 was 19.7%. Due to the achieved sample size being lower than previous iterations, results cannot be published for some classifications at the usual level.
A household is defined as a single person or a group of persons who usually reside together in a housing unit or part of a housing unit and share income or household expenses with the other household members. Flat mates or housemates that do not share expenditure are considered as separate households. Students living in student specific accommodation and substantially supported by their parents will be considered members of the parent household.
The following criteria are applied in the survey to certain categories of persons to decide whether or not they are members of a particular household:
The household reference person is the household member who is at least 16 years old who contributes most to the total income of the household.
Children are defined as household members under eighteen years of age. For classifying clothing expenditure between adults (men and women) and children (boys and girls), children are defined as those under fourteen years of age. Clothing purchased for infants under two years of age is classified as babywear.
The household expenditure concept used in the 2022-2023 survey was equivalent is defined as:
(i) All expenditure incurred by household members with the exceptions of:
(a) regular and ad hoc savings (other than life assurance), and purchases of stocks, shares, other investments and property
(b) direct personal taxation (i.e. income tax and social insurance deductions)
(c) business expenses
(ii) Retail value of home-grown produce (i.e. from own garden or farm) consumed by the household
Income tax payments and social insurance deductions are not included in household expenditure as they are treated as charges on household income.
In Irish surveys of this type, expenditure is traditionally recorded in the diaries on a payment basis, i.e. respondents record individual payments personally made each day even if the goods were delivered previously or are going to be delivered later. Experience has shown that this payment approach is more suited to Irish conditions than the alternative acquisition or consumption methods. The major advantage of the payment approach is that it is a relatively simple procedure for respondents to understand and follow and, as expenditure is recorded almost concurrently with the actual payments, there is less likelihood of errors being made.
Under these payments-based diary completion procedures, any goods ordered or delivered but not paid for are ignored unless they are acquired through one of the following credit arrangements:
(1) Loan repayments/Hire purchase agreements
Loan or Hire purchase repayments that are ongoing during the time of interview are annualised and the weekly equivalent values of these expenditures are included in the average weekly expenditure derived for individual commodity headings.
Details of regular household payments, e.g. utilities, television/landline/broadband subscriptions, mobile phone bills, car insurance and loan/hire purchase repayments are recorded in the notebook. Weekly equivalent values of these expenditures are included in the average weekly expenditure derived for individual commodity headings.
Details of other regular household payments (e.g. rent, mortgage repayments, house insurance and personal payments (e.g. licences, life assurance, education fees etc) are recorded in the in the interview questionnaire. Retrospective questions generally relating to the twelve months preceding the interview are also traditionally used in the survey for a limited number of major and easily remembered irregular outlays, such as purchases of motor cars, domestic appliances, audio-acoustic goods, work of outside contractors and holiday expenses. Validation checks based on corresponding expenditure code ranges ensure that there are no duplicating questionnaire and diary entries.
The following points relating to the collection of household expenditure data require special emphasis:
(a) Part exchange and second-hand purchases
All payments made in respect of part exchange and second-hand purchases during the fourteen day period of record-keeping are recorded. Only net payments are summarised and any amount allowed for goods traded in or exchanged in part exchange are deducted.
(b) Business expenses
All business expenses are excluded since the survey is concerned only with the expenditure incurred by household members in their private capacity. Where households received reimbursement of utility costs from employers, the household’s expenditure on these utilities was adjusted to reflect the reimbursement.
(c) Own garden/farm produce consumed in the home
The quantity and retail value of all home-grown produce consumed (i.e. from the household’s own farm or garden) is recorded on a daily basis. The combined aggregate value of the weekly equivalent retail value of the produce consumed is included in both direct household income and food expenditure.
(d) Expenditure abroad
Total expenditure on holidays of at least two nights abroad is based on replies to a special retrospective question relating to holidays during the twelve months preceding the interview; expenditure on shorter foreign holidays and visits and personal expenditure on business trips abroad continues to be made on the basis of the notebook records.
The HBS collects income data based on the 12-month period prior to the date of interview (i.e. floating reference period). Given the floating income reference period for HBS, income data actually relates to a 24-month period.
Income details are collected at both a household and individual level for HBS 2022-2023. In analysis, each individual’s income is summed up to household level and in turn added to household level income components to calculate gross household income.
The components of gross household income are:
Total income before tax, minus income from government social transfers.
Refers to cash benefits received from local and state government.
Gross household income is defined as direct income plus state transfer payments.
Disposable household income is defined as gross income less income tax and social insurance deductions.
Gross household income excludes certain receipts which are generally of an irregular and non-recurring nature. The principal exclusions are receipts for sale of possessions, withdrawals from savings, loans obtained, loan repayments received, windfalls, prizes, retirement gratuities, maturing insurance policies etc.
Tenure status refers to the nature of the accommodation in which the household resides. The status is provided by the respondent during the interview and responses presented in three categories:
Households categorised as Rented: from Local Authority are those that stated they rent from the Local Authority and for whom there is no indication of a housing support in the form of Rent Supplement, Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS), or Housing Assistance Payment (HAP). Those categorised as Rented: other forms of social housing support were in receipt of Rent Supplement, RAS, or HAP. Households Rented: without housing supports are those households paying rent but not living in local authority housing nor found to be in receipt of Rent Supplement, RAS or HAP.
From 2020 onwards, areas are now classified as Urban or Rural based on the following area populations derived from Census of Population 2016:
The regional classifications in this release are based on the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units) classification used by Eurostat. The NUTS boundaries were amended on 21st November 2016 under Regulation (EC) No.2066/2016 and took effect from 1st January 2018. Results are presented at NUTS 2 level. See Information Note for Data Users: revision to the Irish NUTS 2 and NUTS 3 Regions.
The Disposable household income Quintile groups are five equal-sized groups of households, each group containing 20% of households. The first quintile group contains 20% of households with the lowest disposable household income; the second quintile group contains 20% of households with the next lowest disposable household income etc. The 5th quintile group contains 20% of households with the highest disposable household income.
The disposable weekly household income ranges used to create disposable income quintiles in the 2022-2023 survey are as follows:
1st Quintile: <=€536.71
2nd Quintile: €536.72 - €891.84
3rd Quintile: €891.85 - €1,285.80
4th Quintile: €1,285.81 - €1,836.00
5th Quintile: >€1,836.00
The Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) is the official source of data for individual and household income in Ireland. Definitions for income in the HBS and SILC are not the same and the incomes detailed here are for classification purposes only.
From 2020 the question on Principal Economic Status (PES) was standardised under Regulation (EU) 2019/1700. The results are presented, based on the PES of the household reference person, under the following categories:
For the purposes of deriving household composition, a child was defined as any member of the household aged 17 or under. Households were analysed as a whole, regardless of the number of family units within the household. The categories of household composition presented in the results are:
The Central Statistics Office wishes to thank the participating households for their co-operation in agreeing to take part in the HBS survey and for facilitating the collection of the relevant data.
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