Income, consumption, saving and wealth by category of households in 2003

The average income, consumption, saving and wealth of the households are essential statistical data, in order to analyse the standards of living of the inhabitants of a country and in order to draw comparisons between various countries. However, these data must be enriched by information on their distribution, in order to apprehend the disparities between households and to bring closer macroeconomic and microeconomic measures of the same aggregates.

In the survey concerning the "Income, consumption, saving and wealth by category of households in 2003", four criteria of distinction between the households were selected to study these disparities : the standard of living (measured by the quintiles of gross disposable income per consumption unit), the household composition, the age of the head of the household and the socio-professional category of the head of the household. The disposable income, the consumption expenditure and the saving ratio of the year 2003 can thus be compared for the different categories of households. The size of the urban unit of residence of the households has also been taken into account to analyse the wealth.

These results follow the recommendations of the Stiglitz Commission on "The Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress". The Stiglitz Commission suggested to give more prominence to the distribution of income, consumption and wealth in the analysis of the material well-being of the households. It also recommended that households income and consumption measure should include goods and services in kind provided by general government units and NPISH.