1. www.statistik.at We provide information Toward Harmonisation of Housing Questions Q_2014 Vlasta Zucha Richard Heuberger Directorate Social Statistics Vienna 3 June 2014

2. www.statistik.at slide 2 | 3 June 2014 Motivations for harmonisation Microcensus Housing Survey, Household Budget Survey, EU-SILC …all include questions on housing …are continuous and established surveys …are highly relevant for the Austrian social statistics and the ESS …are strongly interrelated …are linked to other statistics within Statistics Austria

3. www.statistik.at slide 3 | 3 June 2014 Interests and legal frameworks Employment, structure of families and households Housing situation, housing costs, stock of dwellings Microcensus Income and living conditions in the EU, poverty Consumption structure of private households national regulation national regulation for HICP EU-regulation national regulation HBS EU-SILC

4. www.statistik.at slide 4 | 3 June 2014 Interrelations within housing statistics HBS National accounts CPI/HICP EU-SILC Microcensus imputed rents housing costs weighting of basket maintenance costs

5. www.statistik.at slide 5 | 3 June 2014 The harmonisation process Conceptual level Legal frameworks and regulations Conceptual documents Use of data Technical level Wording of questions Structure and form of questionnaire Programming including warnings/signals Empirical level Statistical distributions Missing data

6. www.statistik.at slide 6 | 3 June 2014 Results of harmonising housing questions

7. www.statistik.at slide 7 | 3 June 2014 Harmonisation is necessary and possible but there are limitations …due to different aims and interests …due to legal regulations and frameworks …due to concerns about break in time series …due to interrelations with surveys and statistics which are not in the focus of harmonisation

8. www.statistik.at slide 8 | 3 June 2014 What will be done next… Data based on harmonised questions Microcensus & EU-SILC 2014: surveys will deliver data on basis of harmonised variables  analyse & compare Household Budget Survey will follow 2015 New publication on housing Main report on housing will be re-established in 2014 Including several statistics on housing (focus on social statistics) Communicate differences/similarities of concepts, definitions, terms and data

9. www.statistik.at slide 9 | 3 June 2014 Conclusions Though harmonisation is a time-consuming and difficult process which is related to all stages of a survey the gains of harmonisation compensate for difficulties easier and methodologically sound comparisons of data better handling of existing interrelations better matching of datasets

10. www.statistik.at Folie 10 | 26.11.2013 Please address queries to: Vlasta Zucha Richard Heuberger Contact information: Guglgasse 13, 1110 Vienna phone: +43 (1) 71128-7328 fax: +43 (1) 71128-7455 Vlasta.Zucha@statistik.gv.at Richard.Heuberger@statistik.gv.at Thank you for your attention!