Income and Housing Survey (2005-06), 2nd Edition, Basic and Expanded Confidentialised Unit Record Files
 

Income and Housing Survey (2005-06) Basic and Expanded

The Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) collects detailed information about income and personal and household characteristics of persons aged 15 years and over resident in private dwellings throughout Australia. In some cycles, information on other topics (such as assets and liabilities) is also collected.

The SIH was conducted continuously from 1994–95 to 1997–98, and then in 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2003–04 and 2005–06. Up to and including the 2002-03 survey the SIH sample was drawn from dwellings that had just completed eight months participation in the Monthly Population Survey (MPS). From 2003–04 the sample has been drawn from households that had not recently been included in an ABS household survey. In 2003–04 the SIH was integrated with the Household Expenditure Survey (HES), with a subsample of the SIH respondents being asked additional questions on expenditure. From 2003–04 on, the SIH is being conducted every 2 years, and will be integrated with the HES whenever the HES is run (currently every 6 years).

The 2005–06 SIH was conducted on a sample of dwellings throughout Australia from July 2005 to June 2006. These dwellings were selected through a stratified, multistage cluster design. The sample excluded non–private dwellings (such as hospitals, institutions, nursing homes, hotels, hostels, etc), and dwellings in collection districts defined as very remote.

Information was collected from all persons aged 15 years and over in the selected households. Computer assisted interviewing was used to conduct household and personal interviews. As far as possible, interviews were spread equally over the enumeration period. Information from 9,961 households was included in the final estimates.


Confidentialised Unit Record Files Available:


There are two confidentialised unit record files available from the Survey of Income and Housing; a basic file which is available on CD-ROM and accessible via the Remote Access Data Laboratory (RADL), and a more detailed expanded file accessible through the RADL only.

The files containing unit record data from the Survey of Income and Housing have been confidentialised and as such contain no names and addresses and the detail for some items of data has been reduced. Subject to the limitation of sample size and the data classifications used, it is possible to manipulate the data, produce tabulations and undertake statistical analyses to individual specifications.

The 2005-06 SIH basic CURF contains data on 9,961 household, 12,082 income unit and 19,190 person records. The SIH expanded CURF contains data on 9,961 household, 12,092 income unit and 19,208 person records. The differences in the record counts between the basic and expanded CURFs are due to dropping records for the basic CURF to maintain the confidentiality of households with 6 or more persons.

Principal differences between the basic and expanded CURFs are outlined below. Full details, and comparisons with previous SIH CURFs, can be found in the
Survey of Income and Housing (2005-06) 2nd Edition, Confidentialised Unit Record File (CURF), Technical Manual (cat. no. 6541.0)
The Basic SIH CURF includes:
    • State and capital city/balance of state identifiers (ACT and NT combined);
    • household, family and income unit types;
    • age, sex, marital status, relationship in household, birthplace and year of arrival in Australia;
    • labour force details including occupation, industry and hours worked;
    • qualifications, student status and other details of education;
    • details of mortgages and loans;
    • housing costs, type of tenure and landlord, number of bedrooms and type of dwelling structure;
    • taxes and details of weekly and annual income by fine level source of income for persons and weekly and annual income aggregates for income units and households; and
    • details of assets and liabilities.

Additional data items on the Expanded SIH CURF:
    • section of state (major urban, other urban, other);
    • remoteness;
    • SEIFA index of relative socio-economic disadvantage in deciles;
    • country of birth; and
    • current weekly household equivalised disposable income.

Additional detail on the Expanded SIH CURF:
    • age in single years;
    • duration of unemployment includes single weeks up to 104 weeks;
    • occupation at the sub-major group level;
    • industry more detailed (mix between division, sub-division and combined sub-divisions);
    • country of birth and year of arrival more detailed;
    • hours worked items in single hours, with topcode, instead of grouped hours;
    • highest post-school qualification more detailed;
    • information on dependent children more detailed;
    • maximum household size of 8 persons, not 6 persons; and
    • state/territory (ACT and NT available separately).

The second edition of the CURF incorporates experimental estimates of imputed rent for owner-occupied dwellings, and for dwellings occupied rent-free or at a subsidised rate of rental. Some minor revisions to existing data items have also been incorporated.

Further information and data:

For more information about the content of the CURFs see the Survey of Income and Housing (2005-06) 2nd Edition, Confidentialised Unit Record File (CURF), Technical Manual (cat. no. 6541.0).

For more information about the content of the CURFs see the
Survey of Income and Housing - Confidentialised Unit Record Files, Technical Manual (cat. no. 6541.0).

More information on the 2005-06 Survey of Income and Housing is available in the
Survey of Income and Housing: User Guide (cat. no. 6553.0).

Data from the 2005-06 Survey of Income and Housing have also been, or will be, published in: