Focus on Women and Men
9. Families and households | Contents |
Information on households and families was taken from a survey on social situation of households, which was carried out in the Czech Republic for the first time in 2001 within the integration process with the EU. The target of this survey was not only to measure objective social and economic characteristics, but also via questions about attitude to obtain information on living conditions of households and persons living in them.
A sample unit was a flat; a reporting unit was a household. Definition of a household is based on a statement of persons living together that they live together and have common budget, i.e. they cover the expenditures of the household together. A household usually consists of a family, but it can consist also of more families, an individual household can also consist of an individual.
A self-weighting probability sample was used in the survey; the sample was 0.5% of the total number of flats in the Czech Republic. Data measured were converted to total population of the CR.
Demographic and social indicators were related to the survey period, i.e. May, 2001, data on income were measured for the entire year, i.e. year 2000.
Definition of basic indicators:
Economically active persons are persons, who are in an ordinary employment, they are members of producer cooperatives, self-employed or have income from independent profession. Included are also women on maternity leave receiving maternity benefit.
Unprovided-for children are children of pre-school and school age, older children (up to 26 years), who continually prepare for their future profession or are unable to ensure their living because of their bad psychic or physical condition.
Two-parent families are families the basis of which is a married couple (cohabiting couple) either with or without children. Two-parent nuclear family consists only of a married couple with unprovided-for children with whom no other relatives or economically active children live.
Lone-parent families consist of a lone-parent with one or more unprovided-for children or with other member (grand-parent, provided-for children). If there is no other member, it is a lone-parent nuclear family.
Non-family households consist of persons living together and having no partner relationship or parental relationship (e.g. brother and sister).
Head of household in a two-parent family is always male (husband, common-law husband) regardless his economic activity. For other types of households (lone-parent families, non-family households) the first point of view for determination of the head of household is his/her economic activity, the second is the amount of money income of individual adult persons.
Money income is published as net, i.e. after deduction of amounts to cover health and social insurance and income tax (in 1992 tax on wages). Excluded from net money income are loans, selected savings and interests on deposits.
Data on net money income are shown usually as an average in CZK per person and year.
To compare different income level of households, a quintile division was used, i.e. households were listed in an ascending order by net money income per person and then divided to 5 groups of the same size - so called quintiles.
To achieve better comparability also other conversions were used – size of household was characterised not only by number of persons, but also by number of so-called equivalencies, which with the help of coefficients show weight of individual members of household by their age and by savings resulting in multiple-member households from their common consumption. Equivalencies were used according to the standard scale of OECD, which gives to the first adult person in household the weight of 1.0, other adult persons (aged 13+) have weight 0.7 and children up to 13 the weight of 0.5 and according to the scale used by the EU, in which weights of other adult persons and children in household are lower (1.0; 0.5; 0.3).
Subsistence level is the sum of amounts stipulated by law needed to ensure subsistence and other personal needs and to ensure necessary household costs; it is calculated for each household separately. The whole is a sum of amounts stipulated by law for individual persons (children by age and adults) and for a household depending on the number of its members.
Characteristics of households provide structure of households by specified features (number of household members, household type, age and educational attainment of head of household and wife, etc.). The basis for calculation of percentual proportion in characteristics is always total number of households of relevant type mentioned in the first line of the table. For characteristics related to a wife, the basis is number of households, in which there is a wife. The share is rounded at calculation to 1 decimal place and thus the sum is not always 100%; however, differences are small and do not influence the structures.
Subjective opinions of households include processed answers of households on questions regarding own dwelling, problems with surroundings, economic situation of household and possibilities a household has thanks to its income.
Survey on information and communication technology usage in households in 2002
A pilot survey on this topic was carried out in the Czech Republic for the first time; it was carried out by the LFSS network of interviewers during 14-27 October 2002. The sample includes over 830 households surveyed in the LFSS (covered are all regions) and 1 744 persons; a method of personal or telephone conversation was used. The questionnaire consisted of 21 questions related to ICT; 4 questions applied to equipment of households with ICT and the remaining were for individuals.