Relevance
The European Statistics on Income
and Living Conditions Survey (EU-SILC) is a harmonised statistical enquiry
aimed at collecting comparable data on income, health and disability,
employment, and material deprivation. In
this context, indicators derived from EU-SILC aim to identify the population
categories that are most prone to poverty and material deprivation. This survey is carried out under European
Framework Regulation (EC) No 1177/2003.
Methodological
description of survey
EU-SILC
is a panel survey for which the rotational design with four sub-samples is
adopted. In this way, each group of
households is included in the sample for four waves of the survey and
information is collected over a period of four consecutive years. The reference population of EU-SILC is all
private households and their current members residing in Malta at the time of
data collection.
Through EU-SILC two types of data
can be derived:
- Cross-sectional
data pertaining to fixed time periods, with variables on income, poverty,
social exclusion and living conditions; and
- Longitudinal
data pertaining to individual-level changes over time, usually observed
over four years.
A one-stage sampling design is
implemented. Systematic random sampling is used each year
to select the new panel of 1,500 households to be added to the sample to be
interviewed.
The collection modes for SILC are mainly CAPI and CATI. The
CATI method is
utilised for households from previous waves made up of three persons or less,
all of whom were either aged 65 years or more, or under 12 years. All other households are contacted
by the CAPI method. PAPI is used in occasional circumstances where
it might be preferable to use this format.
Accuracy and
reliability of data
Information
on the accuracy and reliability of data can be viewed in a dedicated quality report available
on the NSO’s metadata website.
Timeliness and
punctuality of data
EU-SILC
microdata for a particular reference year N is submitted to Eurostat in 3
phases. Early transmission is submitted
in December N; regular transmission is submitted in June N+1; and a second
regular transmission is submitted in November N+1.
The
main output from EU-SILC on a national level is an annual news release with
salient indicators. Occasionally, other
news released containing EU-SILC figures are published. These are accessible on the NSO’s website and
are published on the pre-established date, as scheduled in the Advance
Release Calendar which can be viewed also on the NSO’s website.
Accessibility and
clarity of data
The
publication on EU-SILC figures was produced up to reference year 2010. The news releases ‘Focus on Children and the
Elderly’ and ‘Main Dwellings and Material Deprivation’ were released up to the
statistical year 2013. In 2016, a
one-time news release entitled ‘Main Dwellings’ was published for reference
year 2015.
Every
year, a quality report is submitted to Eurostat to highlight methodological
issues involved in the survey. A similar
report is also produced at a national level and disseminated on NSO’s metadata
website.
Coherence and
comparability/consistency of data
EU-SILC
data is a harmonised statistical enquiry aimed at collecting comparable data on
income, poverty and social exclusion, and is coordinated by Eurostat. This allows for comparability of
results across the European Union.
Data
has been collected in a consistent manner since 2005. In view of this, the data can be considered
to be comparable and reconcilable over time.
Labour-related figures from the Labour Force
Survey (LFS) are not exactly comparable due to differences in definitions and
classification between the two sources.
Questionnaire | Metadata