Survey of level of living, housing conditions
05.03 - Dwelling and housing conditions
Since 1996 the survey of living conditions has been carried out each year except in 1999. The survey topics change during a three-year cycle. Working conditions and childcare were included in 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009. Housing conditions, participation in organisations, leisure activities, offences and fear of crime were topics in 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2007. (Offences and fear of crime have longer time series, see section 6.1.) Health, care and social relations were dealt with in 1998, 2002, 2005 and 2008.
National, regional and residential area.
350 - Division for Social Welfare Statistics
Voluntary survey.
Not relevant.
Not relevant.
The Survey of living conditions has two main purposes. One is to throw light on the main aspects of the living conditions in general and for various groups of people. Another purpose is to monitor development in living conditions, both level and distribution. Over a three-year period the cross-sectional survey of living conditions will cover all main areas of the living conditions.
From 1973 to 1995 SN carried out six general surveys named Surveys of Level of Living. These surveys included household economy, housing conditions, leisure activities, social relations, offences and fear of crime, health, care, education, employment and working conditions. In addition externally funded surveys on the living conditions for particular groups were carried out: Benefit recipients, children, youth, the elderly, unemployed, single parents and immigrants.
The most important users are the Ministry of Health and Care Services, the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Children, Equality and Sovial Inclusion, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Justice and the Police, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture and research institutions in the fields of working environment, health, housing conditions and housing environment, leisure and living conditions in general.
The main population in the SLC is persons at least 16 years of age, not living in an institution. Surveys on working conditions include persons who not live in an institution at the age 16 to 66 years. Persons are statistical units in the SLC, however, information on respondents´ households are also identified in some cases.
The sources for the SLC are the yearly, representative sample surveys and linked information from the Survey of Income and Property for Households.
The main sample for the SLC is 5000 persons. In 1998, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007 the survey included additional samples, externally funded.
All the main samples are drawn according to the Statistics Norway's general sampling plan, which is described in the publication Levekårsundersøkinga 1996-1998 NOS C 704.
The data are collected through a combination of computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI) and telephone interviews (CATI). Data for the SLC are primarily collected in the autumn. Additionally postal surveys are used in some of the surveys in order to obtain certain information, such as sensitive information on health conditions.
Information on income and property is obtained from the Survey on income and property for households and linked to the SLC, and additionally information on demography, education and financial aid. Respondents are not replaced when non-eligible or by non-response.
Interviews are accomplished by means of a computer-based questionnaire. Control subroutines are employed in order to avoid erroneous responses and incorrect data registration. In some cases the interviewer is notified when doubtful data entries. In other cases variables have a limited range in order not to enter values surpassing reasonable values. There are built-in control subroutines for valid outcomes for the response options.
For surveys in which industry affiliation and profession are of interest, data are coupled from central registers. Sickness diagnoses are acquired from central data registers, encoded by the Division for Health Statistics.
Not relevant.
SN has worked out guidelines for coupling of different data sources for statistical purposes. The guidelines are based on SN's authorisation given by the Data Inspectorate for person registers, and the Statistics Act. According to these guidelines responses given in surveys can only serve for the purpose of making statistics. i.e. information concerning groups of people will be given, not for individuals. When survey data files are coupled to registers, encryption techniques are used in order to ensure that it is impossible to identify persons from the survey or register information in the coupled data file.
One-dwelling building cover dwelling house on farm, detached one-family house, undetached houses, buildings in chain and atrium, two-family houses and terraced houses.
Owned dwelling cover dwelling owned by freeholder, and dwelling owned through housing cooperative and through housing stock company.
Tenancy agreement limited in time means that the agreement is for less than three years.
Cold and draughty dwelling means that all rooms are cold and/or draughty.
Damp dwelling is a dwelling that is damaged by rot and mould in some or all the rooms.
Poorly ventilated dwelling is a dwelling in which some or all the rooms are poorly ventilated.
Very hot dwelling is a dwelling in which all the rooms easily becomes very hot in the summer.
Crowded dwelling means that one person is living in a dwelling with one room, og that a household with more than one person lives in a dwelling with less than one room per person. Kitchen, bathroom, hall and rooms less than six sqm are not counted as rooms.
Very spacious dwelling means that there is at least three rooms more that the number of persons in the household.
Living area is defined as the total area inside the outer walls of the dwelling. In the cellar and in the attic storey only rooms meant for living are counted.
Access to safe play- and recreational area. This is an area within 200 meters from the dwelling that is at least 5000 sqm and that can be used for play and recreation. Further it is considered that access to the area is safe for all members of the household.
Access to nearby walking area. This is an area within 500 meters from the dwelling that can be used for walking and other outdoor activities.
Area considered unsafe for small children because of traffic. Because of the traffic outside the house it is considered that a five-year-old child should absolutely not or rather not be left alone outside the house.
Unsafe road to school. Parents of children 6 of 12 years of age consider that the road to the school is very dangerous or dangerous.
Plan to move out from parents. Persons aged 18-40 years living with their parents who are active now or plan to get a dwelling for living by themselves during the next 12 months.
Move within three years. Persons with ready plans for moving or expecting to move within three years.
Move to a big city. Persons who plan to move out from their parents or expect to move within three years who expect to move to Oslo or to another city with at least 100 000 inhabitants.
Move to a middle-sized city. Persons who plan to move out from their parents or expect to move within three years who expect to move to a city with 20 000 - 99 999 inhabitants.
Prefer to live in the center. Persons who live in or expect to move to a city with at least 20 000 inhabitants who prefer to live in the center of the city.
Number of days using the holiday house. This is the number of days during the last 12 months that the person has used the holiday house. When the person has access to more than one holiday house only the days using the most used holiday house are counted.
Distance to holiday house. If the respondent has access to more than one holiday house the distance refer to the holiday house that is most used by the respondent.
Dwelling is difficult to access for user of wheel chair. Stairs with more than three steps, steep access or other obstacles that make it difficult for a user of a wheel chair to come from a parking place to the entrance to the house.
Age
Persons are grouped by age at year-end for the completion of the main part of the interview.
Region
The regions include the following counties:
Oslo and Akershus
Eastern Norway excluding Oslo and Akershus: Østfold, Vestfold, Hedmark, Oppland, Buskerud and Telemark
Agder and Rogaland: Aust-Agder, Vest-Agder and Rogaland
Western Norway: Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane, Møre and Romsdal
Trøndelag: Sør-Trøndelag and Nord-Trøndelag
Northern Norway: Nordland, Troms and Finnmark.
Area of residence
Persons are grouped according to sparsely populated areas or densely populated areas of different size. Sparsely populated areas include clusters of houses with less than 200 inhabitants. Densely populated areas include areas with 200 inhabitants or more, and a distance between houses - as a main rule - not more than 50 meters.
Family cycle phase
Persons are grouped mainly by age, marital status and whether the person has children. There is a distinction between singles and couples, where couples include both married and cohabitants. The concept single persons do not necessarily refer to persons living alone in the household.
The groups with children consist of persons living with their own child(ren) (including stepchildren and adopted children) aged 0-19 years in the household.
Socio-economic status
Economically active employees are grouped as workers and salaried employees on the basis of 3-digit occupational codes. Furthermore the occupations are divided in four educational groups by average educational level for persons with these occupations. The group unskilled workers includes persons in worker-occupations in the lowest educational group without leadership functions. Skilled workers consist of persons in other worker-occupations. The group salaried employees, lower level, consist of persons in occupations with salaried employees in the lowest educational group and without leadership functions. The group salaried employees, higher level, consists of persons in occupations in the highest educational group, and persons in occupations in the second highest educational group with leadership functions. The group salaried employees, higher level, also include self-employed persons. Categories are described in Standard Classification of Socio-economic Status (1984, ISBN 82-537-2073-4).
From and including 1998 the Standard Classification of Occupations has been used. This standard is based on the international standard for classification of occupations in line what ILO has set up (International Standard Classification of Occupations - ISCO 88). The EU has prepared a version of this standard (ISCO-88(COM)), which is the basis for the Norwegian standard. The standard for socio-economic status is under revision.
Both in total counts and sample surveys erratic responses may occur. Errors may arise both in the collection as well as in the data revision process. PC´s are used in the collection of data in the SLC. The interviewer reads the questions from the screen, and registers the answers directly into the data programme. An important advantage by using PC-based registering is that pre-programmed skipping of questions is employed in order to avoid placing questions to respondents for whom certain questions are inappropriate.
PC assisted interviewing gives the opportunity to monitor response consistency between the different questions directly. For every question a range of proper values are defined. In addition, error messages are programmed in order to alert the interviewer when typing values that not are consistent with previous responses.
We avoid entering invalid input and we achieve reduced non-response on certain questions by reduced risk for skipping questions that should have been raised.
Errors may occur when respondents give wrong answers. One reason is difficulties for the respondent to remember circumstances far behind in time. Additionally, questions may be misunderstood. When questions relate to issues people find complicated, we must expect that erratic responses may be found. Data collection errors may also come from questions respondents find sensitive. In such cases, respondents may intentionally reply incorrectly. Responses may also be influenced by what the respondent consider socially desirable.
Processing errors take place when there are discrepancies between the values registered and the values reported out of the process. Such errors may occur for instance by recoding. By means of various examinations, such errors are attempted to be identified and corrected.
When all errors as far as possible are corrected, experience indicate that statistical outcomes in most cases to a relatively little extent are affected by collection and processing errors. However, the effect of such errors may have importance in some cases, and every error will not necessarily be detected.
Response percentage in SLC has varied from 65 per cent (2000) to 73 per cent (1998).
The gross sample is drawn in order to reflect the whole population, however, because non-response differs unequally in the different categories used, the net sample will not be fully representative. This bias will vary for different groups and variables in question. In order to adjust for some of the biases that the net sample in relation to the gross sample, figures in the tables are weighted. The following variables are included in the weighting for non-response: Gender, age, education and family size.
The uncertainty of the findings based only a part of the population is often called sampling variance. Standard deviation is a measure of this uncertainty. The size of standard deviation depends, among other factors, on the number of observation in the sample, and on the distribution of the current variable in the whole population.
Statistic Norway has not made exact calculations to compute standard deviation for the findings. However, in table 1, the approximate size of standard deviation is given for observed percentages.
To illustrate the uncertainty associated with a percentage, we can use an interval to give the level of the true value of an estimated quantity (the value obtained if making observation on the whole population instead of observation based on a part of the population). Such intervals are called confidence intervals if constructed in a special way. In this connection one can use the following method: let M be the estimated quantity, and S the estimate of standard deviation of M. The confidence interval will be an interval with limits (M - 2*S) and (M + 2*S).
This method will give, with approximately 95 per cent probability, an interval containing the true value.
The following example illustrates the use of table 1 for finding confidence intervals: The estimate of standard deviation of 70 percent is 3.2 when the estimate is based on 300 observations. The confidence interval for the true value has limits 70 ± 2*3.2, which means the interval, is from 63.6 to 76.4 per cent.
Table 1. Standard deviation in per cent
Number of observations | Per cent | |||||||||
| 5(95) | 10(90) | 15(85) | 20(80) | 25(75) | 30(70) | 35(65) | 40(60) | 45(55) | 50(50) |
50 | 3.8 | 5.2 | 6.2 | 6.9 | 7.5 | 7.9 | 8.3 | 8.5 | 8.6 | 8.7 |
75 | 3.1 | 4.2 | 5.1 | 5.7 | 6.1 | 6.5 | 6.8 | 6.9 | 7 | 7.1 |
100 | 2.7 | 3.7 | 4.4 | 4.9 | 5.3 | 5.6 | 5.8 | 6 | 6.1 | 6.1 |
150 | 2.2 | 3 | 3.6 | 4 | 4.3 | 4.6 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 5 | 5 |
200 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 3.5 | 3.8 | 4 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.3 |
250 | 1.7 | 2.3 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 3.4 | 3.6 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 3.9 |
300 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
400 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 3 | 3.1 | 3.1 |
600 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 2 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
800 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 2 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.2 |
1 000 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 1.9 |
1 500 | 0.7 | 1 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.6 |
2 000 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.4 |
2 500 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 |
3 000 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
4 000 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Not relevant.
The SLC on work environment is based partly on the earlier surveys on working environment 1989 and 1993. Hence several time series start in 1989.
The SLC on housing conditions is based partly on the earlier surveys on housing conditions. The first was carried out in 1967, followed by similar surveys in 1973, 1981, 1988 and 1995. Some time series can also be followed back to the general surveys of level of living 1980-1995.
The SLC on victimization is based on the general surveys of living conditions, which had questions regarding victimization for the first time in 1983.
The SLC on health is based partly on the earlier health surveys. It was first carried out in 1968, followed by surveys in 1975, 1985, 1995 and. Some time series can be followed back to the general surveys on living conditions 1980-1995. The SLC on care and social relations is based mainly on the general surveys on living conditions and several time series can be followed back to 1980.
The concept of living conditions is a very broad one and statistics on living conditions is therefore related to many other statistics.
Register information in Income and Property Statistics, and some information on demography, education and financial aid are linked to the SLC.
Information on housing conditions is also available in the Population and Housing Census 2001. The census statistics gives a possibility to break down to a more detailed geographical level. Some information from the Population and Housing Census 2001 was applied in the SLC on housing conditions in 2001. The Survey of Consumer Expenditure has also issues on housing conditions, among other things a more detailed summary of most kinds of housing expenditures.
Several sources give information on working conditions. The Labour Force Survey is an important source, which gives supplementary information to the SLC, for instance on training and education in employment, work in weekends, information on work schedules and employment among disabled people. Other relevant registers are, for instance, registers on employers, job seekers, unemployed people and a register on absence due to sickness. Information from these registers can be linked to the SLC.
The SLC on leisure activities included information on cultural activities in 1997 and 2007. In addition, cultural activities are presented in the separate Culture and Media Use Surveys.
To some degree the SLC gives input to the Statistics on Natural Resources and the Environment.
Results from the SLC are available as tables and articles on the Internet at the following addresses:
http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/00/02/ Living conditions
http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/03/01/ Health conditions
http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/03/05/ Crime and justice
http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/05/03/ Dwellings and housing conditions
http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/06/02/ Working conditions, sickness absence
http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/07/02/ Cultural activities
Documentation of the SLC cross-sectional surveys including questionnaires, in Norwegian only, is available on the Internet at the following addresses:
Samordnet levekårsundersøkelse 1996 - tverrsnittsundersøkelsen. Dokumentasjonsrapport (Notat 1996/63)
Samordnet levekårsundersøkelse 1997 - tverrsnittsundersøkelsen. Dokumentasjonsrapport (Notat 1998/34)
Samordnet levekårsundersøkelse 1998 - tverrsnittsundersøkelsen. Dokumentasjonsrapport (Notat 1999/40)
Samordnet levekårsundersøkelse 2000 - tverrsnittsundersøkelsen. Dokumentasjonsrapport (Notat 2001/34)
Samordnet levekårsundersøkelse 2001 - tverrsnittsundersøkelsen. Dokumentasjonsrapport (Notat 2002/56)
Samordnet levekårsundersøkelse 2002 - tverrsnittsundersøkelsen. Dokumentasjonsrapport (Notat 2004/22)
Samordnet levekårsundersøkelse 2003 - tverrsnittsundersøkelsen. Dokumentasjonsrapport (Notat 2004/49)
Samordnet levekårsundersøkelse 2004 - tverrsnittsundersøkelsen. Dokumentasjonsrapport (Notat 2005/30)
Samordnet levekårsundersøkelse 2005 - tverrsnittsundersøkelsen. Dokumentasjonsrapport (Notat 2006/39)
Data files with results from the interviews and statistical files with coded variables, linked information and weights are stored. Anonymised files are also available for researchers through the Norwegian Social Science Data Archives.
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