From 2002 to 2010, the GSO plans to conduct the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey every 2 years (in the years ending with even numbers) in order to monitor systematically living standards of Vietnam population's classes and at the same time, to monitor and assess the implementation of the Comprehensive Poverty Alleviation and Growth Strategy defined in the Country Strategy Paper approved by the Government Prime Minister. In addition, this survey also contributes to the evaluation of results of realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Socio-Economic Development Goals set out by Vietnamese Government. The VHLSS 2004 includes topics which reflect the population's living standards: demographic characteristics, education background, professional/ technical level, income, expenditures, use of health services, employment status, housing, amenity as possession, property, goods, electricity, water and sanitation conditions. In addition, this survey includes two new topics: “Agricultural, forestry and fishery land” and “Non-agricultural, forestry and fishery sectors” for more in-depth analysis. Technical assistance was provided by experts of the UN Statistics Division and the World Bank in designing questionnaires for the 2 new contents and sampling.

Abstract

From 2002 to 2010, the GSO plans to conduct the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey every 2 years (in the years ending with even numbers) in order to monitor systematically living standards of Vietnam population's classes and at the same time, to monitor and assess the implementation of the Comprehensive Poverty Alleviation and Growth Strategy defined in the Country Strategy Paper approved by the Government Prime Minister. In addition, this survey also contributes to the evaluation of results of realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Socio-Economic Development Goals set out by Vietnamese Government.

The VHLSS 2004 includes topics which reflect the population's living standards: demographic characteristics, education background, professional/ technical level, income, expenditures, use of health services, employment status, housing, amenity as possession, property, goods, electricity, water and sanitation conditions. In addition, this survey includes two new topics: “Agricultural, forestry and fishery land” and “Non-agricultural, forestry and fishery sectors” for more in-depth analysis. Technical assistance was provided by experts of the UN Statistics Division and the World Bank in designing questionnaires for the 2 new contents and sampling.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

• Household
• Individual
• Community
• Consumption expenditure item/product

Universe

The survey covered all de jure household members (usual residents).

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Survey sample was selected, based on the Population and Housing Census 1999. The sample size included 45,900 households representative of the whole country, urban and rural area and 64 provinces. Survey sample was divided into 2 types: 36,720 households surveyed on income and 9,180 households surveyed on income and expenditures. The survey sample was sub-divided into 2 minor samples for data collection in 2 stages: the first in May 2004 and the second in September 2004.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

VHLSS 2004 questionnaires are developed based on the VHLSS 2002 questionnaires to ensure the comparability between two surveys. These are some changes in households and commune questionnaires. The major changes in the VHLSS 2004 household questionnaire are -- two additional new modules for long household questionnaire that are found in section 9 (additional section) and section 10 (non-farm self employment activities).

The questionnaires are structured as follows:

• Section 1: Demographic characteristics (Roster)

• Section 2: Education and vocational training

• Section 3: Health and health care

• Section 4: Income

• Section 5: Expenditure

• Section 6: Fixed assets and consumer durables

• Section 7: Housing, water and sanitation

• Section 8: Participation in the poverty alleviation and hunger eradication programme and credit

• Section 9: Agriculture, forestry and aquaculture (expanded)

• Section 10: Business other than agriculture, forestry and aquaculture (expanded)

The commune questionnaire consists of 10 sections:

• Section 0: Survey information

• Section 1: Demographic characteristics and general situation of the commune

• Section 2: General economic status and assistance programmes

• Section 3: Opportunity for non-farm employment

• Section 4: Agriculture and land

• Section 5: Infrastructure

• Section 6: Education

• Section 7: Health

• Section 8: Public security and social issues

• Section 9: Credit and saving