Income Distribution Survey

Abstract

The Income Distribution Survey is conducted once a year. The first year in which the survey was conducted was 1977, and was first made available as microdata in 1986 (complete and comparable data). The main purpose of the survey is to measure household and individual income and its distribution. The survey has been funded by the budget of Statistics Finland. The main users of the survey have been Statistics Finland, various researchers, e.g. at the Government Institute for Economic Research, The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The process of data collection (i.e. field work) LIS data was begun in January 1992 and completed in May 1992.Most of register sources have however been merged later to the interview data (late 1992, early 1993). The sampling frame for the survey consists of the Finnish taxation register for 1989. The sampling frame includes the total population of household heads. However, persons (most often not heads of household) who became 16 after 1989 and people living permanently in institutions or abroad (prison, long-term hopsital care or at leat 6 months abroad) have been excluded from the sampling frame. Once the sample was selected from the sampling frame, all sampling units were eligible for interview.