Statistical Presentation
Data description: The survey on "income and living conditions" covers four topics: main indicators, income distribution and monetary poverty, living conditions, material deprivation and childcare arrangements indicators, which are again structured into collections of indicators on specific topics. The collection "main indicators" houses those indicators provided under the Open Method of Coordination in the area of combating poverty and social exclusion. This group of indicators houses the following three collections: the overarching portfolio of indicators, the social inclusion portfolio and the pension’s portfolio. The collection "income distribution and monetary poverty" houses collections of indicators relating to poverty risk, poverty risk of working individuals, income of people at risk of poverty as well as the distribution of income. The collection "living conditions" hosts indicators relating to characteristics and living conditions of households, characteristics of the population according to different breakdowns, health and labour conditions as well as housing conditions. The collection "current household income" covers indicators relating to financial and income parameters and "material deprivation" gives information on lack of specific goods and services in comparison with the countries of the European Union.
Classification system: The EU-SILC results are produced in accordance with the relevant international classification systems. The main classifications used are: ISCED 2011 for the level of education, ISCO 08 (COM) from 2010 for occupation and NACE (Rev. 2 from 2008) for economic activity
Statistical concepts and definitions: Income: The total disposable income of a household is calculated by adding together the personal income received by all household members plus income received at household level. Missing income information in individual questionnaires is imputed. Disposable household income includes: -all income from work (employee wages and salaries and self-employment earnings) -private income from investment and property -transfers between households -all social transfers received in cash including old-age pensions Note: Some of the income components are mandatory only from 2007: Imputed rent, Interest paid on mortgage, Value of goods from own consumption, Employer's social insurance contributions. From 2007 onwards, all countries have to supply gross income information. Equivalence scale: To take into account the impact of differences in household size and composition, the total disposable household income is "equivalised". The equivalised income attributed to each member of the household is calculated by dividing the total disposable income of the household by the equivalisation factor. Equivalisation factors can be determined in various ways. Eurostat applies an equivalisation factor calculated according to the OECD-modified scale first proposed in 1994 - which gives a weight of 1.0 to the first person aged 14 and over, a weight of 0.5 to other persons aged 14 and over and a weight of 0.3 to persons aged 0-13. Household definition: A 'private household' means "a person living alone or a group of people who live together in the same private dwelling and share expenditures, including the joint provision of the essentials of living". EU-SILC implementing regulation number 1980/2003 on updated definitions, defines households in terms of sharing household expenses and (for non-permanent members) in terms of duration of stay and (for temporarily absent members) in terms of duration of absence. Household type: A common classification was developed by Eurostat for use in data collection surveys including ECHP, LFS, HBS and EU-SILC as well as the subsequent presentation of indicators relating to income, housing, education, healthcare, etc. Rather than focusing on "couples" and/or "families", the classification is constructed by reference to the numbers of adult members, their age and gender, and the numbers of dependent children living with them. This is reproduced below: Type of household ■ Total ■ All households without dependent children ■ Single person household ■ One adult male ■ One adult female ■ One adult older than 65 years ■ One adult aged between 0 and 64 years ■ Two adults, no dependent children, younger than 65 years ■Two adults, no dependent children, at least one aged 65 years and over ■ Three or more adults, no dependent children ■ All households with dependent children ■ Single parent with a least one dependent child ■ Two adults with one dependent child ■ Two adults with two dependent children ■ Two adults with three or more dependent children ■ Three or more adults with dependent children Dependent children were previously defined as all persons aged less than 16, plus those economically inactive persons aged 16-24 living with at least one of their parents. Now a slightly different definition has been adopted: All persons aged less then 18 are considered as dependent children, plus those economically inactive persons aged 18-24 living with at least one of their parents. Activity status: Under EU-SILC respondents are asked to declare the number of months of year spent in a list of activity statuses (cross-sectional part). From this information a "calendar of activities" can be constructed. Note: Separate questions also allow the construction of an "ILO activity status". Using the calendar of activities, the following classification of most frequent activity status is established: Activity and/or professional status ■ Employee (full-time) ■ Employee (part-time) ■ Self-employed (full-time) ■ Self-employed (part-time) ■ Unemployed ■ Pupil, student, further training, unpaid work experience ■ In retirement or in early retirement or has given up business ■ Unfit to work ■ Soldier ■ Domestic tasks ■ Other inactive person ■ Person with permanent disability For the 'in work poverty risk indicators', an individual is considered as having a particular activity status if he/she has spent time during the reference year in that status. For the pensions indicator 'aggregate replacement ratio' only persons who have spent the total reported time in the relevant activity status are considered. Education level: Under EU-SILC, the attainment levels of individuals are classified according to the ‘International Standard Classification of Education' version of 2011. ■ Level 000 Less than primary education. ■ Level 100 Primary education. ■ Level 200 Lower secondary education. ■ Level 300 Upper secondary education. ■ Level 400 Post-secondary non-tertiary education. ■ Level 500 Short cycle tertiary ■ Level 600 Bachelor or equivalent ■ Level 700 Master or equivalent. ■ Level 800 Doctorate or equivalent. Occupation: Under EU-SILC, the occupational status of individuals is classified according to the ‘International Standard Classification of Occupations' ISCO_08 (COM).
Statistical unit: Household and household members
Statistical population: ■ The survey covers all the private households throughout the country, irrespective of their size or socio-economic characteristics. The following were excluded from the survey: ■ Institutional households of all types (boarding houses, elderly homes, hospitals, prisons, rehabilitation centers, camps, etc.) ■ Households with more than five lodgers and ■ Households with foreigners serving in diplomatic missions
Reference area: The whole country
Time coverage: The survey was conducted from April to July 2021.
Base period: -
Institutional mandate
Legal acts and other agreements: The legal framework concerning the organization and operation of ELSTAT is as follows: ■ Presidential Decree 73/2019 (Government Gazette No 114 Issue A/4.7.2019): “Administration of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT)”. ■ Greek Statistical Law3832/2010 as in force (Government Gazette No 38, Issue Α): Regulation on the Operation and Administration of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), 2012 (Government Gazette 2390 B, 28.08.2012), as amended by article 90 paragraphs 8 and 9 of the Law 3842/2010 (Government Gazette No 58, Issue Α): “Restoration of fiscal justice, confrontation of tax evasion and other provisions”, by article 10 of the Law 3899/2010 (Government Gazette No 212, Issue A): “Urgent measures for the implementation of the assistance program of the Greek Economy”, by article 45 of the Law 3943/2011 (Government Gazette No 66, Issue A): “Combating tax evasion, staffing of auditing services and other provisions falling within the competence of the Ministry of Finance”, by article 22 paragraph 1 of the Law 3965/2011 (Government Gazette No 113, Issue A): “Operations Reform of the Consignment and Loan Fund, Public Debt Management Agency, Public Enterprises and Government bodies, the establishment of the General Secretary of Public Property and other provisions” and by article 51 of the Law 4021/2011 (Government Gazette No 218, Issue A): “Enhanced measures for the supervision and restructuring of Credit Institutions – Regulation of issues of financial nature – Ratification of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) Framework-Agreement and its amendments and other provisions.” ■ Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, on the European statistics (Official Journal of the European Union L 87/164). ■ Article 14 of the Law 3470/2006 (Government Gazette No 132, Issue A): “National Export Council, taxregulations and other provisions”. ■ Article 3, paragraph 1c, of the Law 3448/2006 (Government Gazette No 57, Issue A): “For the further use ofinformation coming from the public sector and the settlement of matters falling within the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization”. ■ European Statistics Code of Practice adopted by the Statistical Program Committee on 24 February 2005 and promulgated in the Commission Recommendation of 25 May 2005 on the independence, integrity and accountability of the national and Community statistical Authorities, after its revision, which was adopted on 28 September 2011 by the European Statistical System Committee. ■ Presidential Decree 226/2000 (Government Gazette No 195, Issue Α): “Organization of the GeneralSecretariat of the National Statistical Service of Greece”. ■ Articles 4, 8, 9, 10, 12 , 13, 14, 15 and 16 of the Law 2392/1996 (Government Gazette No 60, Issue Α):“Access of the General Secretariat of the National Statistical Service of Greece to administrative sources andadministrative files, Statistical Confidentiality Committee, settlement of matters concerning the conduct of censuses and statistical works, as well as of matters of the General Secretariat of the National Statistical Service of Greece”. Data collection The ECHP (European Community Household Panel) survey was operated under a gentleman's agreement. Its successor, the EU-SILC (Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) instrument, operates under a framework regulation of the Council and the Parliament and a series of Commission implementing regulations. During the transition period, data was also collected under a gentleman's agreement from national sources. The EU-SILC project was launched in 2003, on the basis of a 'gentlemen's agreement' in six MS (Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Austria) as well as in Norway. EU-SILC (Statistics on Income and Living Conditions), now operates under a framework Regulation of the Council and the Parliament (Regulation (EC) No 1177/2003) and a series of Commission implementing Regulations. Indicators At the Laeken European Council in December 2001, Heads of State and Government endorsed a first set of common statistical indicators of social exclusion and poverty that are subject to a continuing process of refinement by the Indicators Sub-group (ISG) of the Social Protection Committee (SPC). These indicators are an essential element in the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) to monitor the progress of Member States in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. The European Council adopted in March 2006 a new framework for the social protection and social inclusion process. While EU countries have different policies in the area of social inclusion, pensions, health and long-term care, they have agreed common objectives in this area, as well as common indicators so that they can compare best practices and measure progress. A set of 14 headline indicators is complemented by specific indicators relating to three main areas: poverty and social exclusion, pensions, and health and long-term care. The Europe 2020 strategy foresees three key priorities for sustainable growth and jobs: knowledge and innovation, green growth - a competitive and sustainable economy, and an inclusive high-employment society. This latter point will be focused on raising employment rates, combating the risks of poverty, promoting active ageing, raising skills. For more information on policy developments, refer to the European Commission's website: Employement, Social Affairs & Inclusion
Data sharing: Not applicable
Accuracy and reliability
Overall accuracy: In terms of precision requirements, the EU-SILC framework regulation as well the Commission Regulation on sampling and tracing rules refer respectively, to the effective sample size to be achieved and to representativeness of the sample. The effective sample size combines sample size and sampling design effect which depends on sampling design, population structure and non-response rate.
Sampling error: EU-SILC is a complex survey involving different sampling design in different countries. In order to harmonize and make sampling errors comparable among countries, Eurostat (with the substantial methodological support of Net-SILC) has chosen to apply the "linearization" technique coupled with the “ultimate cluster” approach for variance estimation. Linearization is a technique based on the use of linear approximation to reduce non-linear statistics to a linear form, justified by asymptotic properties of the estimator. This technique can encompass a wide variety of indicators, including EU-SILC indicators. The "ultimate cluster" approach is a simplification consisting in calculating the variance taking into account only variation among Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) totals. This method requires first stage sampling fractions to be small which the case is nearly always. This method allows a great flexibility and simplifies the calculations of variances. It can also be generalized to calculate variance of the differences of one year to another . The main hypothesis on which the calculations are based is that the "at risk of poverty" threshold is fixed. According to the characteristics and availability of data for different countries we have used different variables to specify strata and cluster information. In particular, countries have been split into four groups: 1)BE, BG, CZ, IE, EL, ES, FR, IT, LV, HU, NL, PL, PT, RO, SI, UK and HR whose sampling design could be assimilated to a two stage stratified type we used DB050 (primary strata) for strata specification and DB060 (Primary Sampling Unit) for cluster specification; 2)DE, EE, CY, LT, LU, AT, SK, FI, CH whose sampling design could be assimilated to a one stage stratified type we used DB050 for strata specification and DB030 (household ID) for cluster specification; 3)DK, MT, SE, IS, NO, whose sampling design could be assimilated to a simple random sampling, we used DB030 for cluster specification and no strata
Non-sampling error: The non-sampling error is a general term to cover any errors other than sampling errors. The non-sampling errors are divided into four categories which are: coverage errors, measurement and processing errors, and non-response errors*. a. Unit non-response b. Item non-response
Coverage error: Coverage errors are caused by the imperfections of a sampling frame for the target population of the survey. ■ Coverage errors include over-coverage, under-coverage and misclassification: ■ Over-coverage: relates either to wrongly classified units that are in fact out of scope, or to units that do not exist in practice. ■ Under-coverage: refers to units not included in the sampling frame. ■ Misclassification: refers to incorrect classification of units that belong to the target population. A systematic source of coverage problems is the time lag between the reference date for the selection of the sample and the fieldwork period, which should be made the shortest.
Measurement error: Μeasurement errors can occur from the questionnaire (design, content and wording), the interviewers and their training, the respondents, the routing, and the skills testing before starting the fieldwork. As the 2021 survey was the eighteenth (19th) in a row, the quality was significantly improved due to the information provided by the researchers to conduct the research and the continuous improvement in data analysis and research.
Non response error: Non-response errors are errors due to an unsuccessful attempt to obtain the desired information from an eligible unit. Two main types of non-response errors are considered. Unit non response: which refers to the absence of all information of a whole unit (households and/or persons) selected for survey. Item non-response: which refers to the absence part of information of the unit (households and/or persons) selected for survey.
Processing error: Such errors can occur at all stages of data processing after collection, such as the coding of questionnaire responses. Good processing methods, but also quality control that have been developed since 2003 (1st year of survey) have significantly reduced this type of errors.
Model assumption error: Not applicable