Living Conditions Survey

In 2024, we will ask you about:

• housing, housing expenses, and mortgages
• household finances
• health and quality of life
• sport and outdoor activities
• work and employment for all household members aged 16 years and over
• childcare, children’s health and material goods.

Some of these topics, such as housing, health, and work, will be asked every year. Other topics will change every year, for example questions about sport and outdoor activities, and children’s health and material goods.

Approximately 12 000 persons aged 16 years and over are randomly selected from the National Population Register to answer the survey.

You will receive a letter by mail or in Altinn from us if you are selected to answer the survey. Shortly after you have received this, one of our interviewers will call you to conduct the interview. If you want to arrange a time for us to contact you, please call 62 88 56 08 or send an e-mail to svar@ssb.no.

The interview can only be done over the phone. You can answer in Norwegian and English.

The survey aims to follow developments in living conditions over time, and each participant will be interviewed once a year for four years.

If you have received a letter from us but have not yet been contacted by our interviewers, it might be because we have been unable to find your phone number. In that case, please contact us and provide us with your contact information.

In this survey, some of the questions relate to the residence you live in and how much you pay in housing expenses and mortgages. To the household we include all persons who are permanent residents of the home and who share expenses for food and other consumption expenses. You can answer the questions quicker if you note down the expenses that are relevant to you in advance.

You can find information about mortgages, loans, and expenses in your online bank or your annual statement from your bank, insurance company, etc. If you do not know the exact numbers, please give an estimate.

You will also get questions about the size of the dwelling:

• How many rooms are there in the residence? Do not include bathrooms, hallway, laundry room, storage room, and rooms the household does not have at their disposal. The kitchen is included if this is also a dayroom.
• How many square metres is the residence? Specify the area of the primary room. This is the area most often stated as the size of the residence in real estate adverts.

For people owning their property, we want information about:

• Remaining mortgage. Stated as a total number for all loans secured by the residence.
• The amount the household pays in total in interest and instalment per month for loans secured by the residence.
• The interest rate for the mortgage. If you have several loans, state an average.
• The amounts paid in rent or shared costs, if you pay this.
• Expenses for electricity last month.
• Other expenses to firewood and heating the last 12 months.
• The amounts paid per year for housing insurance, if you pay this.
• The amounts paid per year in property tax and municipal charges, if you pay this. Municipal charges include water, sewerage, waste disposal and chimney sweeping. The amounts for property tax and municipal charges can be stated together or separately.
• Expenses the last 12 months for maintenance or repairs on the residence. Do not include expenses for new constructions, extensions, or other renovations to improve the standard of the residence.

For people renting a residence, we want information about:

• Rent per month.
• Expenses for electricity the last month, if you pay for this yourself.
• Other expenses for firewood or heating the last 12 months.

• Everyone working at Statistics Norway will treat your information confidentially. Individual answers will not be disclosed.
• You can contact us at any time before two years after the data collection period is completed, to withdraw or ask for your answers to be corrected or deleted, or to ask for access to your answers.
• The survey is carried out in accordance with the Statistics Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). If you have further questions about GDPR, you can send an e-mail to personvernombud@ssb.no or read more at our information page about privacy.
• All data will be anonymised within two years after completion of the data collection.
• To make the interview shorter, we collect data about you, your household and your parents from registers Statistics Norway already has access to. This includes information from the National Population Register as well as information about education from school owners and the State Educational Loan Fund. We also collect information about income, employment, welfare benefits and other financial support from the Norwegian Tax Administration and Nav, and information on immigration from The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration and information on housing situation from registers over households and residences.