ECV Survey on Living Conditions

The Survey on Living Conditions measures the occurrence and composition of poverty by means of establishing a poverty risk threshold. In addition, it provides information on personal income distribution based on annual net income. Furthermore, it provides data on the housing deprivation, as well as housing conditions and a harmonised indicator of the risk of poverty or social exclusion.

The Living Conditions Survey is an annual statistic harmonised at European level performed jointly by Idescat and the INE. From 2016, Idescat has carried out a sample extension which allows to obtain the dissemination of more reliable results for Catalonia, and opens the door to drawing up estimates of the main indicators for the territorial areas, Barcelona Metropolitan Area and municipality of Barcelona. This operation is carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Families, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, the Barcelona City Council and the Institute of Regional and Metropolitan Studies of Barcelona.

There was a break in time series of these statistics in 2013, due to a change in the method for obtaining household income: from this year onwards, the official registers of the State Social Security and Tax Agency have been used.

With the publication of the 2016 and 2017 surveys, the results for Catalonia are complemented by some of the main indicators for the eight territorial areas, the City of Barcelona and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. When publishing the results of the 2018 Survey, bearing in mind the low volume of publishable indicators, it was decided to postpone the publication of the territorial results and, at the same time, promote the search for an alternative methodological procedure to draw up the territorial indicators.

Note: Prior to 2016, this operation was called "Statistics on Personal Income Distribution and the Risk of Poverty".