Income and wealth statistics for households, 2012

The concepts presented here are explained according to how they are used in the statistics. These explanations may differ from the common definitions of the concepts.

Household

A household is regarded as all persons who live permanently in the same dwelling and having common housekeeping. The statistics include only persons in private households. Persons registered as living in institutions are not included.

Student household

A student household is defined as a household where the main income earner is not mainly economically active or in receipt of pensions and benefits, but receives a loan from the State Educational Loan Fund.

Main income earner

The main income earner is the person in the household who has the highest total income before taxes of the income earners in the household. If there is no income earner in the household, the oldest person is defined as the main income earner.

Total income

Total income is the sum of employee, income from self-employment, property income and transfers received. Assessed tax and other negative transfers are not deducted.

After-tax income

After-tax income is calculated as total income minus assessed tax and negative transfers.

Income from work

Income from work is the sum of employee income and net income from self-employment during the calendar year.

Income from self-employment

Income received in self-employment jobs. It primarily concerns the profit or loss from unincorporated enterprises.

Property income

Property income is the sum of interest received, share dividends received, realized capital gains (or losses) and other property income received during the calendar year.

Taxable transfers

Taxable transfers are the sum of pensions and benefits from the social security scheme, public and private employer provided schemes, unemployment benefits, sickness benefits and other taxable benefits.

Tax-free transfers

Tax-free transfers consist of child benefits, dwelling support, scholarships, social assistance, basic and attendance benefit and more.

Child support received through private agreements is not registered, and therefore not included in the statistics.

Assessed taxes and negative transfers

This comprises income tax and wealth tax to the central government and municipalities. Examples of negative transfers are pension contributions in employment and paid child support managed by public arrangement.

Estimated real capital

Estimated value of properties, buildings and constructions, possessions, etc.

Market value is used for primary and secondary dwellings, commercial properties, forests and farms.

Tax value is used for other real estate and private and commercial moveable property.

Primary dwelling

The dwelling where the address of the owner is registered in the National Population Register at the end of the year. Value is set according to assessed market value. A person can only own one primary dwelling. Farmhouses on farms are not regarded as primary dwellings.

Secondary dwelling

A dwelling that a person owns, which is not the primary dwelling. Value is set according to assessed market value. Cabins and holiday properties are not secondary dwellings.

Estimated gross financial capital

Comprises bank deposits, shares, units of mutual funds, share savings accounts, bonds and other securities.

Prior to 2008, appreciation of shares, mutual funds, primary capital certificates etc. were subject to discounts. In the wealth statistics, tax value was applied. Between 2008 and 2016, discounts were not used, and tax value corresponded to market value. From 2017, discounts in the appreciation values were once again used in the taxation of financial wealth. In the wealth statistics, however, tax values have been adjusted upwards so that the appreciation used in the wealth statistics corresponds to market or sales value.

Estimated gross wealth

Sum of estimated real capital and gross financial capital.

Debt

Comprises dept to creditors and share of dept   for owners in Building Societies. From 2017, market value of debt is used, including appreciation discounts used in the taxation of debt. Prior to 2017, market value and taxable value of debt were the same.

From 2017 and on the sum of debt was subject to a reduction before subtracting the debt from the wealth estimation when assessing taxation of wealth.

In the Income and wealth statistics for households, the sum of debt before any possible reduction is used in the definition of wealth.

Unsecured debt contains debt with both interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing balances. Data on unsecured debt are only available from the income year 2019 and on. The size of the unsecured debt is calculated according to data from Gjeldsregisteret AS as of December 31st in the income year.

Estimated net wealth

Estimated gross wealth minus debt.

Median income

Median income is the exact income amount that splits a distribution in two equally sized groups, when income is sorted ascending (or descending). The number of persons with income above the median will be the same as the number of persons with income below the median.

Income per consumption unit (equivalent income)

The needs of a household grow with each additional member but not in a proportional way. Needs for housing space, electricity, etc. will not be three times as high for a household with three members than for a single person, due to economy of scale. With the help of equivalence scales each household type in the population is assigned a value in proportion to its needs. The factors commonly considered to assign these values are the number of persons in the household and whether they are adults or children.

Several equivalents scales exist which are used for different purposes. In the Income and wealth statistics for households, the EU scale is applied (see below).

Consumption units calculated according to the EU scale

This is the ‘OECD-modified equivalence scale’ which assigns a value of 1 to the household head, of 0.5 to each additional adult member and of 0.3 to each child under the age of 17.

Consumption units calculated according to the OECD scale

This equivalence scale assigns a value of 1 to the household head, of 0.7 to each additional adult member and of 0.5 to each child under the age of 17.

Low income threshold

The low-income thresholds are defined as a share of median equivalent income after tax. Commonly used shares are 50 or 60 per cent of median income after tax per consumption unit. There is no official low-income threshold in Norway. Statistics Norway calculates different low-income thresholds based on the income level among the total population, and thus is relative to the general income growth and comparable for persons belonging to different household types.

Low-income group

Persons belonging to a household with annual equivalent income below the low-income threshold.

Economically active

A person that has income from employment or self-employment that is greater than twice the Basic Amount of the National Insurance Scheme (so-called "G", or "grunnbeløpet"). For the income year 2010 and earlier, persons with income from employment or self-employment greater than the Minimum Pension for single people were regarded as economically active.

This concept differs from the definition “Employed persons” used in other statistics, which defines whether a person is in employment on a certain time.

Single parents

Persons in the household type "mother/father with children aged 0-17 years".

Old-age pensioners

Persons in households where the main income earner, according to the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, receives old age pension from the social security system.

Disability pensioners

Persons in households where the main income earner, according to the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, receives disability pension from the social security system.

Pensioners within the Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme

Persons in households where the main income earner, according to the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, is in early retirement.

Receivers of survivor's benefits

Persons in households where the main income earner, according to the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, receives survivor's benefit (after deceased spouse) from the social security system.

Single pensioner, receiver of the minimum state pension

Persons that according to Statistics Norway's Household Income Statistics belong to a single-person household and are in receipt of a special allowance from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration.

Receivers of work assessment allowance

Persons in households where the main income earner is registered with a longstanding illness. Included are persons in receipt of rehabilitation allowances, persons incapable of full labour force participation, but attend labour market schemes, and others. Up until 2005, persons who were incapable of full labour force participation but who attended programmes initiated by the National Insurance Scheme (e.g. school and work placements), and persons who were receiving vocational rehabilitation allowances, were not included in the statistics.

Long-term unemployed

Persons in households where the main income earner has been registered as unemployed for 6 consecutive months or more during the year.

People on social assistance

Persons in households where the main income earner has received social assistance at least once during the year.

Singles

Persons who are the only person in a household.

Immigrants

Persons in households where the main income earner is born abroad by two foreign-born parents (first-generation immigrant).

Norwegian-born to immigrant parents

Persons in households where the main income earner is born in Norway by two foreign-born parents.

Refugees

Persons in households where the main income earner is immigrated to Norway for refuge reasons.

Persons with refugee background

Persons in households where the main income earner is immigrated to Norway for refuge reasons or immigrated family members of these.

Age

Age (number of years) at the end of the year.

Socioeconomic status

Socioeconomic status is described by type of economic activity (see above). The economically active population, which mainly receive their income from working, is divided into self-employed and employees. If income from self-employment is greater than income from employment, the person is classified as self-employed, and vice versa. 

We have the following socio-economic groups:

Working

• Self-employed in agriculture, forestry and fishing
• Self-employed in other industries.
• Employee

Non-working

• Pensioners and National Insurance recipients
• Other non-working

Income sources not included in the income statistics

After-tax income comprises the sum of income from work, property income and transfers, where assessed taxes and negative transfers are deducted. This way of defining income is in accordance with the practical definition recommended in the Canberra report (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe 2011). 

The income statistics cover most of the various monetary income sources. Due to lack of information, the following elements are not included in the statistics although they affect the income level.

• The value of public services, such as public health care and education
• The net value of unpaid domestic services. This include unpaid housework, child care and goods produced for own consumption
• The net value of owner-occupied housing services.
• The net value of services from household consumer durables
• Income withheld from taxation or gained from criminal activities
• Child support received through private agreements
• Rental income when renting out less than 50 per cent of owner-occupied housing
• Municipal subsidy schemes for housing and cash benefits for child care
• Local property taxes are not deducted when estimating after-tax income due to lack of information
• Interest payments are not deducted from after-tax income, although data on this is available. This is done as a rough compensation for not including the value of owner-occupied housing services in the income.

Types of household are in accordance with standard classifications.