Household budget and consumption expenditure

The main objective of the Household Budget Survey (HBS) is to estimate the level and structure of household consumption expenditure in country as a whole, in regions, urban and rural areas, as well as in various household groups.

HBS is a source of information for the calculation of Consumer Price Index (inflation) and estimation of the Gross Domestic Product, as well as allows analysing consumption of food products in households.

The basic unit of the survey is private household. 

All private households in Latvia. The survey does not cover institutional households. Institutional households include persons, whose housing and subsistence needs are provided by institution. An institution is a legal entity that is intended to house and provide a group of persons on a long-term basis services. Institutions usually have common areas shared by residents (bathrooms, lounges, dining rooms, bedrooms, etc.).

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Statistics database

EU data on Eurostat website Section: Household budget survey

Household budget surveys do not take place every year in all EU Member States. Eurostat database contains data for: 1988, 1994, 1999, 2005, 2010, 2015.

Consumption expenditure in group 4 "Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels" at the national level does not include imputed rent, i. i.e. the imputed rent of owner-occupied dwellings, which is included in the publication of data by Eurostat in order to improve comparability of data among the Member States of the European Union.

Completely comparable data on Household Budget Survey data are available since 2002 to 2016. In 2017 and 2018, the Household Budget Survey was not conducted. Due to the changes in questionnaire design and improvements in the calculation methodology, results of the Household Budget Survey 2019 are not fully comparable with the results of the surveys conducted prior.

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Method used to collect Household Budget Survey data is personal interview with an individual living in a household that has responded to the CSB request to participate in the survey as well as agreed to make regular records in a Diary registering consumption expenditure thereof. Usually respondent is a household member – an adult who has the most extensive information on household as whole. Participation in the survey is voluntary.

The information is collected with the help of two core questionnaires: household consumption expenditure diary and household questionnaire.

Household diary is filled in by respondents themselves over a two-week period. In the diary, respondents register all regular household consumption expenditure (or attach receipt) as well as consumption of food products obtained from their kitchen garden or received free of charge.

Household Questionnaire is completed by the interviewer. It consists of two interviews: Preliminary Interview and Final Interview. Preliminary interview consists of questions related to the background characteristics of the household composition, education, employment of household members, characteristics of agricultural land, while the Final Interview involves questions regarding housing conditions, household income in cash and in kind from employer or local government, as well as expenditure on miscellaneous goods and services.

Sample is evenly distributed throughout the whole territory of Latvia. Survey includes all persons living in the particular household.

HBS has a two-stage stratified sample, stratifying addresses by the degree of urbanisation: Riga, eight largest cities (Daugavpils, Jēkabpils, Jelgava, Jūrmala, Liepāja, Rēzekne, Valmiera, Ventspils), other towns, rural areas. The counting areas of the Population and Housing Census are used as primary sample unit (PSU) within each stratum. The annual address sample is evenly distributed over time and space.

* Not including overcoverage.

Survey data are extrapolated on all private household and household members living in these households.