A methodological alteration was introduced in 2009, data of consumption and incomes were collected in a partly common data survey. So, a new Household Budget and Living Conditions Survey (HBLS) was established. Based on this data collection, two different data productions were carried out, one was focused on consumption and the other one was focused on income. The income data was used as background information only for sorting the households into income deciles.
The sample covered about a quarter percent of Hungarian private households. The surveyed households kept a detailed diary about their expenses for a month, which was followed by a detailed interview about their consumption and incomes at the end of the year. Since 2000, data have been collected according to the COICOP (Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose) applied in the European Union. The detailed expenses are published not only per capita but also per household and per consumption unit, which makes the interpretation of data easier. The used consumption unit scale is as follows: first active adult 1.00; all other adults 0.75; first child 0.65; second child 0.50; all other children 0.40 unit. In case of inactive households: first inactive adult 0.90; all other persons 0.65 unit.
Grossing up data of households participating in the Household Budget and Living Conditions Survey, expenditures do not fall in line with the ones in the national accounts. This derives partly from the different surveying method. The coverage of observation is also different; in HBLS only private households are observed. (Macro-level indicators of household sector are contained in Chapter 3.1.)
Detailed data of incomes are reported according to the methodology of EU-SILC, because these income data are used for the international comparison as well. Some income items previously considered as income do not add in total net income, so these items cannot be directly compared. For the sake of the direct comparison, the items left out are listed at the end of the table.
Household: consists of persons who – irrespective of kinship – form a common income and consumption unit sharing completely or partly the current costs of their living.
Income: it covers the so-called incomes for personal purpose and their use. Thus, it does not contain the value of social benefits in kind (health care, education, etc.).
Income deciles: deciles of the population ranked according to the annual net income per capita.
Expenditure: all household expenditures financed from income in the current year, savings, sale of personal properties, presents received from other households in cash or in kind, or covered by credits.
Consumption: contains total value of purchased consumption plus the value of own produced goods and goods received as gifts.
The minimum of subsistence value is calculated on the basis of the normative food consumption value. When determining the minimum of subsistence, the consumption data used originate from households that had participated in the Household Budget Survey and whose sum of food consumption values was similar to the normative values taking into consideration also some other criteria. The minimum of subsistence value is determined relying on the average overall consumption data of these households.
Quantitatively, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office defines the value of the minimum of subsistence simply as a sum of values – specifically, the average monthly value of the total personal consumption related expenditure of households that consume food in a HUF value similar to the normative.