Content
About the statistics
Definitions
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Name and topic
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Name: Households' income, particular groups
Topic: Income and consumption
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Responsible division
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Division for Income and Wage Statistics
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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Total income is the sum of wages and salaries, property income and transfers.
After-tax income is the sum of total income, less assessed taxes and negative transfers.
After-tax income per consumption unit (equivalent income) is the household after-tax income "corrected" for differences in household size and household composition. When comparing the level of income and living standards for households of varying size, income is often adjusted with the help of equivalence scales or consumption units. An equivalence scale, for instance, provides an indication of how much income a household of four must have in order to achieve the same standard of living as a single person with the same income.
EU-equivalent scale: The first adult in the household counts as 1 unit, the next adults 0.5 each, and each child under the age of 17 counts as 0.3 units.
OECD-equivalent scale: The first adult in the household counts as 1 unit, the next adults 0.7, and each child under the age of 17 counts as 0.5 units.
Median income is the exact income amount that splits a distribution in two equally sized groups, when income is sorted ascending (or descending). The number of persons with income over the median income will be the same as the number of persons with income under the median income.
Low-income threshold. Defined as an equivalent income lower than different percentages of the median income, e.g. 50, 60 or 70 per cent of median income for all persons.
Low-income group. Persons with yearly equivalent income lower than the low-income threshold.
Standard deviation. Measure of sampling variance. Cf. no 5.3.
Household
A household is regarded as all persons living permanently in the home and having common house keeping.
The main income earner is the member in the household whose total income is the highest of the income earners in the household. In those cases where there is no income earner in the household, the oldest person is the main income earner.
Person with economic activity
A person that has income from employment or self-employment that is greater than the minimum pension for single people.Single parents
Persons in the household type "mother/father with children aged 0-17 years".Couples with children aged 0-17 years in the lowest income class
Couples with children aged 0-17 years where the equivalent after-tax income (EU-scale) is in the lowest decile.Children under 18 years of age
People in households with children less than 18 years of age.Old-age pensioners
People in households where the main income earner, according to the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organisation (previously the National Insurance Service), receives old age pension from the social security system.Disability pensioners
People in households where the main income earner, according to the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organisation, receives disability pension from the social security system.Pensioners within the Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme :
People in households where the main income earner, according to the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organisation, has used the opportunity for early retirementReceivers of survivor's benefits
People in households where the main income earner, according to the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organisation, receives survivor's benefit (after deceased spouse) from the social security system.Single pensioner, receiver of the minimum state pension
People living alone according to Statistics Norway's Income Statistics for Households and recipient of special allowance from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare OrganisationLongstanding illness
People in households where the main income earner is registered with longstanding illness. Included are people in receipt of rehabilitation allowances, persons incapable of full employment but partaking in labour market schemes, and others. Up until 2005, persons who were incapable of full employment but who were taking part in programmes initiated by the National Insurance Scheme (e.g. school and work placements), and persons who were receiving vocational rehabilitation allowances, were not included in the statistics.Long-term unemployed
People in households where the main income earner has been registered as unemployed for 6 consecutive months or more during the year.Immigrants
People in households where the main income earner is born abroad by two foreign-born parents (first-generation immigrant) or born in Norway by two foreign-born parents.Immigrants from non-western countries
People in households where the main income earner is an immigrant from Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South America or Turkey.Refugees
People in households where the main income earner is a refugee.People on social assistance
People in households where the main income earner has received social assistance during the year.Single people under 35 years of age
Single people according to Statistics Norway's Income Statistics for Households. Single students are excluded. The definition of student is a person without any economic activity and without social security benefits, but who does receive a student loan.The senior population
People in households where the main income earner is in the age group 50 - 66 years.
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Standard classifications
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Not relevant
Administrative information
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Regional level
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National level.
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Frequency and timeliness
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Annually. During first quarter two years after income year.
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International reporting
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Not relevant
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Microdata
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Raw data files with income data that have gone through linking and estimation programs are stored.
Background
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Background and purpose
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The purpose of the statistics is to present data on income distribution indicators for different population groups.
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Users and applications
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The main users of the statistics are the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Directorate for Health and Social Affairs. The indicators are also of great interest for the rest of the public administration, the research community and others engaged in questions of household economics, tax research and living conditions in general.
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Coherence with other statistics
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Some of the income indicators presented here will be published in the yearly social indicators for income and consumption.
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Legal authority
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Statistics Act §§ 2-1, 3-2.
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EEA reference
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Not relevant
Production
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Population
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All persons residing in Norway as of 31st December during the survey year with the exception of residents of institutions.
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Data sources and sampling
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The source of the statistics is the Income Statistics for Households.
http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/05/01/ifhus_en/
The statistics is based on a representative sample from 1996-2004. Total census from 2005.
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Collection of data, editing and estimations
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Cf. no 3.2.
Cf. no 3.2.
The unit of analysis is both the household and the individual household member. Most indicators show the percentage of persons living in households with particular characteristics.
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Confidentiality
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The use of collected data will be in accordance with the standards of the Statistics Act. The information will be kept in a responsible way.
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Comparability over time and space
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The statistics is no longer directly comparable with the "Income indicators for receivers of social security benefits. The number of groups compared is increased, some definitions have changed and the data source is limited to the Income and Property Statistics for Households. The statistics can give comparable figures from the period 1986. However, it is important to be aware of the changes that has taken place in the data material during this period, for example as a result of changes in the tax system and access to new income components from registers. These changes will to some extent influence the indicators.
The statistics is based on a representative sample from 1996-2004. Total census from 2005.
A more detailed description of changes that have taken place in the concept of income since 1986 is given in NOS D310 Income and Property Statistics for Households 2002 .
Accuracy and reliability
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Sources of error and uncertainty
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The indicators are based on The Income Statistics for Household. For information about the collection and processing errors we refer to "About the statistics" in the statistics: http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/05/01/ifhus_en/
Most of the information is based on administrative registers, where non-response is no problem. Household information is however collected through a survey, where the non-response issue is handled by replacing household information by family information. Cf. no 3.3.
From and including the income year 2005, this statistics is a total census and will not be affected by this type of error. For previous years with sample based statistics the following is of relevance:
Variance
The following table shows the approximate magnitude of the standard deviation due to sampling errors in the statistics.
Number of observations
Per cent
1(99)
2(98)
3(97)
5(95)
10(90)
20(80)
30(70)
50(50)
25
2,4
3,4
4,2
5,3
7,3
9,8
11,2
12,2
50
1,7
2,4
3,0
3,8
5,2
6,9
7,9
8,7
100
1,2
1,7
2,1
2,7
3,7
4,9
5,6
6,1
200
0,9
1,2
1,5
1,9
2,6
3,5
4,0
4,3
400
0,6
0,9
1,0
1,3
1,8
2,4
2,8
3,1
800
0,4
0,6
0,7
0,9
1,3
1,7
2,0
2,2
1000
0,4
0,5
0,7
0,8
1,2
1,5
1,8
1,9
2000
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,6
0,8
1,1
1,3
1,4
4000
0,2
0,3
0,3
0,4
0,6
0,8
0,9
1,0
12000
0,1
0,2
0,2
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,6
25000
0,1
0,1
0,1
0,2
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,4
70000
0,0
0,1
0,1
0,1
0,1
0,2
0,2
0,2
The statistics is published with Income and wealth statistics for households.