What is the Household Budget Survey (HBS)?
The HBS is carried out among private households in Malta and Gozo and aims to gather information about day-to-day household expenditure. It is one of the ‘oldest’ surveys carried out in Malta.
The survey also collects other information on household characteristics and socio-demographic particulars of the respondents.
Data collection spans over an entire year. This means that seasonal adjustment and one-off payments are also captured, thus ensuring a highly representative basket of goods for all household types.
Why is the HBS important?
The survey provides indications on different standards of living in terms of income and expenditure. The survey findings are of interest to a diverse community of users, and results are used for planning, policy, and monitoring purposes.
The results and information extracted from the HBS are most importantly used:
To update the Retail Price Index (RPI)
As a contributory factor to the calculation of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
For other studies relating to household expenses and for other uses (like poverty analysis and food consumption)
Who is eligible to participate?
Data collection will span over one year from November 2024 up until November 2025. A gross sample of 7,000 households will be selected for the HBS. This sample is spread randomly over 52 weeks.
The target population consists of all private households and their current members residing in Malta and Gozo. Institutional households such as convents and homes for the elderly are excluded, due to different expenditure patterns.
Households’ participation in this survey is mandatory as stipulated by the Malta Statistics Authority Act, 2000. Still, 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.
Data Collection
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- Main Questionnaire: The main questionnaire collects detailed information on household characteristics, such as income, housing, employment, education, and other demographic factors. It provides a snapshot of the household’s overall financial situation, including major, infrequent expenses that might not be captured in a short-term diary. The data from the main questionnaire gives context to the spending habits recorded in the diaries, such as understanding why certain expenses occur based on income or household size.
- Weekly Diaries: Weekly diaries record daily expenditures, capturing small, frequent purchases that might be forgotten or overlooked if only a long-term recall questionnaire was used. The diaries, namely two covering a one-week period each, help reduce recall bias by asking participants to record expenses as they occur, leading to more accurate and timely data. By tracking spending over time, diaries can reveal spending patterns, seasonality in consumption, and changes in spending behavior that might be missed in a one-time questionnaire.
Data collection will be carried out in two major stages:
- Phase 1: Screening phase
- Phase 2: Filling of main questionnaire and diaries (2 weeks)
Phase 1: Screening
Selected households will be contacted for the first time by NSO survey interviewers who will explain the whole data collection process as well as the importance of their participation in this survey.
A letter will be sent to the households before the screening phase. An SMS will also be sent to household members.
Phase 2: Data Collection
Data collection will be carried out by a group of trained interviewers, who will carry out the screening phase and assist the households in filling in the weekly diaries and also the main questionnaire.
Participating households will receive a monetary token of €50 in appreciation for their contribution.
Methodology
Although the HBS is designed primarily for national purposes, NSO took all necessary measures in order to ensure that the results from this survey are fully harmonised, in order to allow for comparability with results compiled by other EU member countries. In fact, all Eurostat’s recommendations were taken on board during the design stage of this survey:
- Sampling
- Core variables (social variables, disposable income, etc.)
- Classifications (occupations, economic sector, education, etc.)
For the purpose of this exercise, NSO has prepared a list of codes of all expenditure items. This code list will enable the classification of products and services by:
- Classification of Products by Activity (CPA)
- Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP)
NSO-IT unit designed tailor made software for the purpose of this project:
- Survey management application
- Data entry tool
- Coding tools
The NSO will be using administrative data for the compilation of some household income components. This measure is expected to improve the quality of results, whilst reducing the burden on households.
The NSO already carried out a pilot project in order to test the validity of the questionnaire. A series of amendments were made in the main questionnaire further to this pilot project, and an improved version was designed.
Quality
Data collection will be continuously monitored to ensure that a satisfactory level of response is obtained throughout the survey period.
NSO will carry out regular audits during data collection to ensure that the interviewers’ work meets the highest quality standards.
- Filled-in questionnaires will be verified by trained supervisors to ensure consistency, while checking for issues related to under-reporting and logical errors in the data provided by participating households. If necessary, households will be re-contacted to verify and correct any inaccurate or incorrect information.
- The data entry tool will contain a series of in-built validation checks that will identify misleading information even during the data entry stage.
- Thorough checks will be undertaken on the data during the data analysis stage to ensure that high-quality data will be provided from this survey.
A rigorous coding exercise is carried out that involves reviewing and categorising each expense recorded by households in the main questionnaire and weekly diaries into predefined categories that align with international standards, such as the Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP). The goal is to ensure consistency and comparability of data across different countries and over time, allowing for accurate analysis of consumption patterns and economic trends on a global scale.
All the information collected from the participating families will be utilised only for statistical purposes, in accordance with the Malta Statistics Authority Act, and is therefore treated as highly confidential.
To this end, all officers who will be involved in this project are bound by an oath regarding confidentiality of data, as required by the Act.