Household Budget Survey: FAQs
About the Survey
Why is the Household Budget Survey (HBS) important?
The HBS is being conducted by the NSO among private households in Malta and Gozo. This survey helps us understand how you spend, save, and consume. By sharing your spending habits, you help shape important decisions on social welfare and economic growth.
A key objective of the HBS is to update the Retail Price Index (RPI), which measures price changes and the impact of inflation on family budgets. The results are vital for planning, policy, and monitoring purposes.
What is included in the survey?
Households will be requested to provide data on household composition and demographics, employment, revenue, expenditure, accommodation and accommodation facilities, durable consumption goods (such as vehicles), other financial and expenditure items. Data will be collected by means of a main questionnaire and a two-week diary.
What should I do in case of difficulty in filling in the diary and questionnaire?
In case of difficulty, you are kindly requested to seek assistance from the Survey Interviewer assigned to your household. Should further assistance be required, you can contact the Data Collection Unit by email [email protected] or telephone 25997380 (Monday to Friday from 09:00 hrs till 15:00 hrs).
Participation
Is participation mandatory?
Yes. Participation in the HBS is mandatory as stipulated by the Malta Statistics Authority Act, 2000.
Who is eligible to participate in the survey?
Participants for the HBS will be randomly selected. These will be private households which are composed of members holding Maltese resident status (living, or intend to live in Malta for a period of at least 12 months).
How will I know if I have been selected?
Sampled households will receive a notification letter indicating that the household has been sampled for participation. Additionally, one of our Survey Interviewers will be in contact with the household to provide information on the survey and set a mutually convenient appointment to conduct the survey.
If my household has been selected, who should fill the diary?
Each household will be provided with 2 diaries, covering a two-week period, on which regular expenditure is listed. The Survey Interviewer assigned to a particular household shall be providing the household with all the necessary information on how such diaries are to be filled in. It is up to the household to coordinate who shall be entrusted to fill in and provide the required information.
I am not a Maltese citizen, am I still required to fill it out?
Participation is not limited to citizenship but to residency status. Data will be requested from randomly selected private households whose members have Maltese resident status (living, or intend to live in Malta for a period of at least 12 months).
If I have been selected, how will I participate?
Data will be collected by means of a main questionnaire and a two-week diary.
One of our Survey Interviewers will be in contact with the household to provide information on the survey and set a mutually convenient appointment to conduct the survey. During the first visit the Survey interviewer will provide the household with 2 diary format questionnaires, one for each of the two reference weeks, and explain how these need to be filled in. Diaries are expected to be filled by household members, although interviewers will assist the households in case of difficulty. The Survey Interviewer assigned to your household will visit a second time to confirm that the diary is being filled in correctly and conduct the main survey. The Survey Interviewer will visit for the third time, at the end of the two-week period, to collect the diaries.
During the data collection for the main survey questionnaire, which will be filled in by Survey Interviewers, households will be requested to provide data on household composition and demographics, employment, revenue, expenditure, accommodation and accommodation facilities, durable consumption goods (such as vehicles), other financial and expenditure items.
On the diary questionnaires, participating households are required to report their day-to-day expenditure, as well as other occasional expenditure, over a period of two weeks. The primary scope of the diaries is to collect main product information such as price, physical quantities, and places of purchase. Participating households must list all their daily purchases in the diaries during the two-week period starting on the first Monday of the reference period. To this end, the year in which the survey is held is segmented into periods of two weeks. Consequently, every week, one group of households will be starting their assignment while another group will be concluding it.
How do I correct a mistake in the diary?
Kindly avoid the use of correction fluid. In case or erroneous diary entries, such as incorrectly listed expenditure items (either on wrong day or section, or errors in the description, price, quantity, or weight), the incorrect entry is to be struck-through and the correct entry listed as applicable.
Will participants receive a Token of appreciation?
In appreciation for the time and effort which the responding households will put into providing the requested information, these households will be compensated with a monetary token of €50 for their contribution.
Security and Confidentiality
How will my data be protected?
Data security is a priority for the NSO. All collected data will be utilised exclusively for the needs of official statistics and protected according to internal policies, national and European legislation. Additionally, data is disseminated and published in aggregated form without risk of household or individual identification. NSO staff and all survey interviewers are given an oath of secrecy. Moreover, access to data is on a need to know basis and therefore NSO staff do not have access to households’ data.
How will I know that a survey interviewer is from the NSO?
If in doubt, you may request that the Survey Interviewer quotes the household reference number indicated in the notification letter provided to you. Additionally, you can contact the Data Collection Office by telephone on 25997380 (Monday to Friday from 09:00 till 15:00) to verify the source of the received call.
