Income and consumption distribution in the household sector (experimental statistics)

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Government Finances, Economic Statistics
Ulla Ryder Jørgensen

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Income and consumption distribution in the household sector (experimental statistics) 2022

The purpose of the statistics is to bring together the benefits from the national accounts system, which provides a coherent description of the economy, and from microeconomic statistics on households, so that one can take a closer look at how incomes and consumption are distributed between different types of households.

Statistical presentation

The distribution of income and consumption for the household sector of the national accounts is an experimental annual calculation of income and private consumption at household level, which is aggregated by quintiles and household types. The survey covers private households in Denmark.

Statistical processing

Virtually all economic statistics that are available are used for the national accounts. When new sources are ready, they are continuously incorporated into the national accounts according to a fixed rhythm. Three years after a given period, the national accounts are considered final.

The consumption survey is a sample survey, where the number of households is 2,200 out of Denmark's total of approx. 2.8 million private households. From 2024, 3,200 will be asked. The study includes information from three data sources: Accounts, CAPI interviews and registers.

Relevance

The statistics are relevant to everyone who deals with socio-economic conditions for households.

Accuracy and reliability

The ability of the national accounts to accurately describe economic reality depends partly on the uncertainty associated with the sources and partly on the model assumptions underlying the preparation. Some parts can be calculated more precisely than others, as there is better access to source data. The first estimates of a period's national accounts will be more uncertain than the final version, which comes after three years, as they are continuously revised when new sources become available.

The participation rate for the Consumption Survey in the years 2018-2022 has varied with . This creates uncertainty, not least for detailed consumption groups. For the total consumption, this means that there is an uncertainty margin of +/- 1.2 per cent. while for bread, for example, it is 2 per cent. For Food and non-alcoholic beverages, it is 1.2 per cent. , while for Alcoholic beverages and tobacco it is 4.8. There is under-reporting in a number of areas such as alcohol, tobacco, prostitution and undeclared work. The uncertainty is greater when data is based on accounting instead of interviews, and it will be greater if you look at smaller subgroups of households.

In these statistics, we have chosen a more general level to ensure greater consistency between the national accounts and the consumption survey, as well as to minimize uncertainty.

Timeliness and punctuality

The statistics were first published approx. 23 months after the end of the reference year.

Comparability

The national accounts and the consumption survey are carried out according to guidelines from the European statistical office Eurostat. Comparable figures are published by Eurostat. The distributional figures are still experimental in both Eurostat and Denmark.

Accessibility and clarity

In the Statistics Bank, the results of the statistics are published under the National Accounts.