About the Dataset

This dataset contains Quality of Life indices for various countries around the globe, extracted from the Numbeo website. The data provides valuable metrics for comparing countries based on several aspects of living standards, which can assist in decisions such as choosing a place to live or analyzing global trends in quality of life.

OBS: The code to generate this dataset is presented on: https://www.kaggle.com/code/marcelobatalhah/web-scrapping-quality-of-life-index

Columns in the Dataset

1. Rank:
   The global rank of the country based on its Quality of Life Index according to Year (1 = highest quality of life).

2. Country:
   The name of the country.

3. Quality of Life Index:
   A composite index that evaluates the overall quality of life in a country by combining other indices, such as Safety, Purchasing Power, and Health Care.

4. Purchasing Power Index:
   Measures the relative purchasing power of the average consumer in a country compared to New York City (baseline = 100).

5. Safety Index:
   Indicates the safety level of a country. A higher score suggests a safer environment.

6. Health Care Index:
   Evaluates the quality and accessibility of healthcare in the country.

7. Cost of Living Index:
   Measures the relative cost of living in a country compared to New York City (baseline = 100).

8. Property Price to Income Ratio:
   Compares the affordability of real estate by dividing the average property price by the average income.

9. Traffic Commute Time Index:
   Reflects the average time spent commuting due to traffic.

10. Pollution Index:
    Rates the level of pollution in the country (air, water, etc.).

11. Climate Index:
    Rates the favorability of the climate in the country (higher = more favorable).

12. Year:
    Year when the metrics were extracted.

Key Insights from the Dataset

• The Quality of Life Index aggregates multiple indicators, making it a useful single metric to compare countries.
• Specific indices such as Safety Index or Health Care Index allow for focused analysis on areas like security or healthcare quality.
• Cost of Living Index and Purchasing Power Index can help determine the affordability of living in each country.

How the Data Was Collected

• The dataset was built using web scraping techniques in Python.
• The data was extracted from the "Quality of Life Rankings by Country" page on Numbeo.
• Libraries used:
  • requests for retrieving webpage content.
  • BeautifulSoup for parsing the HTML and extracting relevant information.
  • pandas for organizing and storing the data in a structured format.

Possible Applications

1. Relocation Decision Making:
   Use the dataset to compare countries and identify destinations with high quality of life, safety, and healthcare.

2. Global Analysis:
   Perform exploratory data analysis (EDA) to identify trends and correlations across quality of life metrics.

3. Visualization:
   Plot global maps, bar charts, or other visualizations to better understand the data.

4. Predictive Modeling:
   Use this dataset as a base for machine learning tasks, like predicting Quality of Life Index based on other metrics.

Luxembourg stands out as the European leader in quality of life for 2025, achieving a score of 220 on the Quality of Life Index. The Netherlands follows closely behind with 211 points, while Albania and Ukraine rank at the bottom with scores of 104 and 115 respectively. This index provides a thorough assessment of living conditions across Europe, reflecting various factors that shape the overall well-being of populations and extending beyond purely economic metrics. Understanding the quality of life index The quality of life index is a multifaceted measure that incorporates factors such as purchasing power, pollution levels, housing affordability, cost of living, safety, healthcare quality, traffic conditions, and climate, to measure the overall quality of life of a Country. Higher overall index scores indicate better living conditions. However, in subindexes such as pollution, cost of living, and traffic commute time, lower values correspond to improved quality of life. Challenges affecting life satisfaction Despite the fact that European countries register high levels of life quality by for example leading the ranking of happiest countries in the world, life satisfaction across the European Union has been on a downward trend since 2018. The EU's overall life satisfaction score dropped from 7.3 out of 10 in 2018 to 7.1 in 2022. This decline can be attributed to various factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic and economic challenges such as high inflation. Rising housing costs, in particular, have emerged as a critical concern, significantly affecting quality of life. This issue has played a central role in shaping voter priorities for the European Parliamentary Elections in 2024 and becoming one of the most pressing challenges for Europeans, profoundly influencing both daily experiences and long-term well-being.

Context

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions. The health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth, the education dimension is measured by mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age. The standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita. The HDI uses the logarithm of income, to reflect the diminishing importance of income with increasing GNI. The scores for the three HDI dimension indices are then aggregated into a composite index using geometric mean. Refer to Technical notes for more details. The HDI can be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with different human development outcomes. These contrasts can stimulate debate about government policy priorities. The HDI simplifies and captures only part of what human development entails. It does not reflect on inequalities, poverty, human security, empowerment, etc. The HDRO provides other composite indices as a broader proxy on some of the key issues of human development, inequality, gender disparity, and poverty. A fuller picture of a country's level of human development requires analysis of other indicators and information presented in the HDR statistical annex.

Content

In this Dataset, we have Global, regional, and country/territory-level data on key dimensions of human development with various composite indices. The human development composite indices have been developed to capture broader dimensions of human development, identify groups falling behind in human progress and monitor the distribution of human development. In addition to the HDI, the indices include Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI), Gender Inequality Index (GII), Gender Development Index (GDI), Planetary pressures-adjusted HDI (PHDI) and Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI).

Dataset Glossary (Alphabetical Order)

• Adolescent Birth Rate - Births per 1000 Women Ages 15 to 19
• Carbon Dioxide Emissions per Capita Production in Tonnes
• Coefficient of Human Inequality
• Expected Years of Schooling - Female
• Expected Years of Schooling - Male
• Expected Years of Schooling
• Gender Development Index
• Gender Inequality Index
• Gross National Income Per Capita - Female
• Gross National Income Per Capita - Male
• Gross National Income Per Capita
• HDI Female
• HDI Male
• Human Development Index
• Inequality Adjusted Human Development Index
• Inequality in Education
• Inequality in Income
• Inequality in Life Expectancy
• Labour Force Participation Rate - Female Percentage Ages 15 and Older
• Labour Force Participation Rate - Male Percentage Ages 15 and Older
• Life Expectancy at Birth - Female
• Life Expectancy at Birth - Male
• Life Expectancy at Birth
• Material Footprint per Capita in Tonnes
• Maternal Mortality Ratio - Deaths per 100000 Live Births
• Mean Years of Schooling - Female
• Mean Years of Schooling - Male
• Mean Years of Schooling
• Planetary Pressures Adjusted Human Development Index

Cover Photo by: pch.vector on Freepik

The average for 2021 based on 165 countries was 79.81 index points. The highest value was in Bermuda: 212.7 index points and the lowest value was in Syria: 33.25 index points. The indicator is available from 2017 to 2021. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

The average for 2021 based on 41 countries was 107.05 index points. The highest value was in Switzerland: 211.98 index points and the lowest value was in Belarus: 40.99 index points. The indicator is available from 2017 to 2021. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

The average for 2023 based on 184 countries was 0.744 points. The highest value was in Iceland: 0.972 points and the lowest value was in South Africa: 0.388 points. The indicator is available from 1980 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

As of 2022, Israel had the highest price level index among listed countries, amounting to 138, with 100 being the average of OECD countries. Switzerland and Iceland followed on the places behind. On the other hand, Turkey and India had the lowest price levels compared to the OECD average. This price index shows differences in price levels in different countries. Another very popular index indicating the value of money is the Big Mac index, showing how much a Big Mac costs in different countries. This list was also topped by Switzerland in 2023.

Abstract

Timor-Leste experienced a fundamental social and economic upheaval after its people voted for independence from Indonesia in a referendum in August 1999. Population was displaced, and public and private infrastructure was destroyed or rendered inoperable. Soon after the violence ceased, the country began rebuilding itself with the support from UN agencies, the international donor community and NGOs. The government laid out a National Development Plan (NDP) with two central goals: to promote rapid, equitable and sustainable economic growth and to reduce poverty.

Formulating a national plan and poverty reduction strategy required data on poverty and living standards, and given the profound changes experienced, new data collection had to be undertaken to accurately assess the living conditions in the country. The Planning Commission of the Timor-Leste Transitional Authority undertook a Poverty Assessment Project along with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

This project comprised three data collection activities on different aspects of living standards, which taken together, provide a comprehensive picture of well-being in Timor-Leste. The first component was the Suco Survey, which is a census of all 498 sucos (villages) in the country. It provides an inventory of existing social and physical infrastructure and of the economic characteristics of each suco, in addition to aldeia (hamlet) level population figures. It was carried out between February and April 2001.

A second element was the Timor-Leste Living Standards Measurement Survey (TLSS). This is a household survey with a nationally representative sample of 1,800 families from 100 sucos. It was designed to diagnose the extent, nature and causes of poverty, and to analyze policy options facing the country. It assembles comprehensive information on household demographics, housing and assets, household expenditures and some components of income, agriculture, labor market data, basic health and education, subjective perceptions of poverty and social capital.

Data collection was undertaken between end August and November 2001.

The final component was the Participatory Potential Assessment (PPA), which is a qualitative community survey in 48 aldeias in the 13 districts of the country to take stock of their assets, skills and strengths, identify the main challenges and priorities, and formulate strategies for tackling these within their communities. It was completed between November 2001 and January 2002.

Geographic coverage

National coverage. Domains: Urban/rural; Agro-ecological zones (Highlands, Lowlands, Western Region, Eastern Region, Central Region)

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

SAMPLE SIZE AND ANALYTIC DOMAINS

A survey relies on identifying a subgroup of a population that is representative both for the underlying population and for specific analytical domains of interest. The main objective of the TLSS is to derive a poverty profile for the country and salient population groups. The fundamental analytic domains identified are the Major Urban Centers (Dili and Baucau), the Other Urban Centers and the Rural Areas. The survey represents certain important sub-divisions of the Rural Areas, namely two major agro-ecologic zones (Lowlands and Highlands) and three broad geographic regions (West, Center and East). In addition to these domains, we can separate landlocked sucos (Inland) from those with sea access (Coast), and generate categories merging rural and urban strata along the geographic, altitude, and sea access dimensions. However, the TLSS does not provide detailed indicators for narrow geographic areas, such as postos or even districts. [Note: Timor-Leste is divided into 13 major units called districts. These are further subdivided into 67 postos (subdistricts), 498 sucos (villages) and 2,336 aldeias (sub-villages). The administrative structure is uniform throughout the country, including rural and urban areas.]

The survey has a sample size of 1,800 households, or about one percent of the total number of households in Timor-Leste. The experience of Living Standards Measurement Surveys in many countries - most of them substantially larger than Timor-Leste - has shown that samples of that size are sufficient for the requirements of a poverty assessment.

The survey domains were defined as follows. The Urban Area is divided into the Major Urban Centers (the 31 sucos in Dili and the 6 sucos in Baucau) and the Other Urban Centers (the remaining 34 urban sucos outside Dili and Baucau). The rest of the country (427 sucos in total) comprises the Rural Area. The grouping of sucos into urban and rural areas is based on the Indonesian classification. In addition, we separated rural sucos both by agro-ecological zones and geographic areas. With the help of the Geographic Information System developed at the Department of Agriculture, sucos were subsequently qualified as belonging to the Highlands or the Lowlands depending on the share of their surface above and below the 500 m level curve. The three westernmost districts (Oecussi, Bobonaro and Cova Lima) constitute the Western Region, the three easternmost districts (Baucau, Lautem and Viqueque) the Eastern Region, and the remaining seven districts (Aileu, Ainaro, Dili, Ermera, Liquica, Manufahi and Manatuto) belong to the Central Region.

SAMPLING STRATA AND SAMPLE ALLOCATION

Our next step was to ensure that each analytical domain contained a sufficient number of households. Assuming a uniform sampling fraction of approximately 1/100, a non-stratified 1,800-household sample would contain around 240 Major Urban households and 170 Other Urban households -too few to sustain representative and significant analyses. We therefore stratified the sample to separate the two urban areas from the rural areas. The rural strata were large enough so that its implicit stratification along agro-ecological and geographical dimensions was sufficient to ensure that these dimensions were represented proportionally to their share of the population. The final sample design by strata was as follows: 450 households in the Major Urban Centers (378 in Dili and 72 in Baucau), 252 households in the Other Urban Centers and 1,098 households in the Rural Areas.

SAMPLING STRATEGY

The sampling of households in each stratum, with the exception of Urban Dili, followed a 3-stage procedure. In the first stage, a certain number of sucos were selected with probability proportional to size (PPS). Hence 4 sucos were selected in Urban Baucau, 14 in Other Urban Centers and 61 in the Rural Areas. In the second stage, 3 aldeias in each suco were selected, again with probability proportional to size (PPS). In the third stage, 6 households were selected in each aldeia with equal probability (EP). This implies that the sample is approximately selfweighted within the stratum: all households in the stratum had the same chance of being visited by the survey.

A simpler and more efficient 2-stage process was used for Urban Dili. In the first stage, 63 aldeias were selected with PPS and in the second stage 6 households with equal probability in each aldeia (for a total sample of 378 households). This procedure reduces sampling errors since the sample will be spread more than with the standard 3-stage process, but it can only be applied to Urban Dili as only there it was possible to sort the selected aldeias into groups of 3 aldeias located in close proximity of each other.

HOUSEHOLD LISTING

The final sampling stage requires choosing a certain number of households at random with equal probability in each of the aldeias selected by the previous sampling stages. This requires establishing the complete inventory of all households in these aldeias - a field task known as the household listing operation. The household listing operation also acquires importance as a benchmark for assessing the quality of the population data collected by the Suco Survey, which was conducted in February-March 2001. At that time, the number of households currently living in each aldeia was asked from the suco and aldeia chiefs, but there are reasons to suspect that these figures are biased. Specifically, certain suco and aldeia chiefs may have answered about households belonging, rather than currently living, in the aldeias, whereas others may have faced perverse incentives to report figures different from the actual ones. These biases are believed to be more serious in Dili than in the rest of the country.

Two operational approaches were considered for the household listing. One is the classical doorto-door (DTD) method that is generally used in most countries for this kind of operations. The second approach - which is specific of Timor-Leste - depends on the lists of families that are kept by most suco and aldeia chiefs in their offices. The prior-list-dependent (PLD) method is much faster, since it can be completed by a single enumerator in each aldeia, working most of the time in the premises of the suco or aldeia chief; however, it can be prone to biases depending on the accuracy and timeliness of the family lists.

After extensive empirical testing of the weaknesses and strengths of the two alternatives, we decided to use the DTD method in Dili and an improved version of the PLD method elsewhere. The improvements introduced to the PLD consisted in clarifying the concept of a household "currently living in the aldeia", both by intensive training and supervision of the enumerators and by making its meaning explicit in the form's wording (it means that the household members are regularly eating and sleeping in the aldeia at the time of the operation). In addition,

In 2025, Luxembourg was the country with the highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. Of the 20 listed countries, 13 are in Europe and five are in Asia, alongside the U.S. and Australia. There are no African or Latin American countries among the top 20. Correlation with high living standards While GDP is a useful indicator for measuring the size or strength of an economy, GDP per capita is much more reflective of living standards. For example, when compared to life expectancy or indices such as the Human Development Index or the World Happiness Report, there is a strong overlap - 14 of the 20 countries on this list are also ranked among the 20 happiest countries in 2024, and all 20 have "very high" HDIs. Misleading metrics? GDP per capita figures, however, can be misleading, and to paint a fuller picture of a country's living standards then one must look at multiple metrics. GDP per capita figures can be skewed by inequalities in wealth distribution, and in countries such as those in the Middle East, a relatively large share of the population lives in poverty while a smaller number live affluent lifestyles.

This dataset provides a country–year panel for OECD countries covering the period 2010–2024. It combines annual data on public, private and total social expenditure as a share of GDP with the World Happiness Index (WHI) and the Human Development Index (HDI).The data are constructed to analyze the relationships between social spending, subjective well-being and human development in OECD countries. The panel structure (one observation per country per year) makes the dataset suitable for descriptive analysis as well as regression-based empirical research.ContentsThe main Excel file contains a single data sheet:Sheet: data_setEach row corresponds to a specific country–year observation for an OECD member state.Variables:Country: Country name (OECD member; e.g., “Australia”, “Türkiye”, “United States”).iso3: ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code (e.g., “AUS”, “TUR”, “USA”).year: Calendar year (2010–2024).pub_socexp_gdp: Public social expenditure as a percentage of GDP (%).priv_socexp_gdp: Private (mandatory and voluntary) social expenditure as a percentage of GDP (%).tot_socexp_gdp: Total social expenditure (public + private) as a percentage of GDP (%).WHI: World Happiness Index; average national happiness score on a 0–10 scale based on the Cantril ladder question.HDI: Human Development Index; composite index of three basic dimensions of human development (health, education, and standard of living).income_group: Binary country income group indicator used in the analysis. High‑income OECD countries are coded as 1 (“High”), and all other OECD members (upper‑middle, lower‑middle and low income) are coded as 0 (“NonHigh”). Income groups were constructed using data from the OECD Data Explorer (2024) and the World Bank country income classification for 2024, based on PPP (purchasing power parity) income thresholds.Empty cells indicate that data for the corresponding country–year observation are not available in the original sources or were not included in the analytical sample due to missingness.Data sourcesSocial expenditure (pub_socexp_gdp, priv_socexp_gdp, tot_socexp_gdp)Data are taken from the OECD Social Expenditure Database (SOCX). SOCX provides reliable and internationally comparable statistics on public and mandatory and voluntary private social expenditure at the program level for 38 OECD countries (and some accession countries), with coverage from 1980 and estimates for more recent years.Reference: OECD Social Expenditure Database (SOCX), https://www.oecd.org/en/data/datasets/social-expenditure-database-socx.html.World Happiness Index (WHI)Happiness data are drawn from the World Happiness Report, accessed via HumanProgress.org (World Happiness Report section). The index is based on average national values for answers to the Cantril ladder question, which asks respondents to evaluate their current life on a 0–10 scale, with the worst possible life as 0 and the best possible life as 10.Reference: World Happiness Report; HumanProgress.org, https://humanprogress.org.Human Development Index (HDI)HDI data are drawn from the Human Development Index series compiled by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), accessed via HumanProgress.org (Human Development Index section). The HDI measures three basic dimensions of human development: life expectancy at birth; an education component (adult literacy rate and school enrollment); and GDP per capita (purchasing power parity, PPP, in U.S. dollars), combined into a composite index.Reference: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Reports; HumanProgress.org, https://humanprogress.org.Data construction and coverageThe dataset is restricted to OECD member countries and the years 2010–2024.WHI and HDI series are matched to OECD social expenditure data using ISO3 country codes and calendar years.In addition, a binary income group variable (income_group) was created to distinguish high‑income OECD countries from other OECD members, using the World Bank’s 2024 income thresholds (PPP‑based) and country information from the OECD Data Explorer (2024).Some country–year combinations, particularly in later years (e.g., 2022–2024), contain missing values where the original sources do not provide data or only provide partial estimates. These are retained as empty cells.The empirical analyses in the associated study are conducted on subsets of the data restricted to complete cases for the relevant variables.Researchers can use this dataset to replicate the results of the associated study or to conduct additional analyses on the links between social expenditure, happiness and human development within the OECD context.If you use this dataset, please cite both this data file and the original data providers (OECD, World Happiness Report, UNDP, and HumanProgress.org).

The Cost of living rating evaluates how much ordinary living expenses cost in different countries, including food, housing, necessary goods, services, medical insurance and other aspects.

Global Housing and Utilities Price Rankings

Context:

This dataset provides comprehensive information on housing and utilities prices across various countries, allowing researchers, analysts, and enthusiasts to explore global cost-of-living trends. The data includes details on each country's housing and utilities prices for the year 2017, along with their global ranking based on these costs. The dataset also indicates the availability status of the data for each country, ensuring transparency in the information provided.

Dataset Use Cases:

• Researchers can analyze this dataset to identify countries with the most and least affordable housing and utilities costs in 2017.
• Data analysts can visualize the global rankings to spot trends in housing affordability.
• Expats and individuals planning to relocate can use this data to make informed decisions about their destination countries.
• Policymakers can gain insights into the cost-of-living disparities between nations.

Economic development indicators provide a measure as to how economically developed a country or region is compared with others through a financial means.Years of Schooling: Average total years of schooling, ranging from 1-5 years (elementary school) to 12+ years (post secondary).Global Infant Mortality Rate: Infant mortality is the death of an infant before his or her first birthday. The infant mortality rate is the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births.Global Life Expectancy: The average expected length of a person's life based on their year and country of birth.Internet Users: Internet users are individuals who have used the Internet (from any location) in the last 3 months. The Internet can be used via a computer, mobile phone, personal digital assistant, games machine, digital TV, etc. The layer shows internet users per 100 people by country.GNI: This indicator provides per capita values for gross national income (GNI). It is expressed in current international dollars converted by purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factor. GNI is the sum of value added by all resident producers plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output plus net receipts of primary income (compensation of employees and property income) from abroad.Human Development Index: The HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone. HDI is a composite of population health, education, and standard of living.

According to the survey, as of February 2023, four out of the six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council ranked amongst the top ** in the world for expatriate quality of life. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates topped the list for quality of life, whereas Saudi Arabia and Kuwait came last in the region. Quality of life; an amalgamation of many metrics Since quality of life is dependent on many indicators, it can give us a good insight into many aspects of state welfare policies and services. Saudi Arabia, where the number of foreign workers in the private sector topped *** million, also ranked as having one of the region's lowest quality of life for expatriates. Qatar, which had the second-highest quality of life for expatriates living in the GCC, was ranked as one of the most challenging countries in the region for ease of settling in. The UAE and Qatar, both of which ranked the highest in the survey, also have the highest average salaries and living standards in the region. Foreign workers are a key pillar of the GCC economy Countries in the GCC all have sizable expatriate populations for which their economies are heavily reliant. Roughly ********** of the workforce in the GCC is foreign. Although the share of foreign workers in the GCC has slightly decreased in recent years, they still considerably outweigh the local workforce. Most of these workers comprise the unskilled portion of the occupational category in the GCC. However, with diversifying investments and programs such as Vision 2030, countries have seen a rise in the number of skilled foreign workers.

Abstract

In 1992, Bosnia-Herzegovina, one of the six republics in former Yugoslavia, became an independent nation. A civil war started soon thereafter, lasting until 1995 and causing widespread destruction and losses of lives. Following the Dayton accord, BosniaHerzegovina (BiH) emerged as an independent state comprised of two entities, namely, the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Republika Srpska (RS), and the district of Brcko. In addition to the destruction caused to the physical infrastructure, there was considerable social disruption and decline in living standards for a large section of the population. Along side these events, a period of economic transition to a market economy was occurring. The distributive impacts of this transition, both positive and negative, are unknown. In short, while it is clear that welfare levels have changed, there is very little information on poverty and social indicators on which to base policies and programs.

In the post-war process of rebuilding the economic and social base of the country, the government has faced the problems created by having little relevant data at the household level. The three statistical organizations in the country (State Agency for Statistics for BiH –BHAS, the RS Institute of Statistics-RSIS, and the FBiH Institute of Statistics-FIS) have been active in working to improve the data available to policy makers: both at the macro and the household level. One facet of their activities is to design and implement a series of household series. The first of these surveys is the Living Standards Measurement Study survey (LSMS). Later surveys will include the Household Budget Survey (an Income and Expenditure Survey) and a Labor Force Survey. A subset of the LSMS households will be re-interviewed in the two years following the LSMS to create a panel data set.

The three statistical organizations began work on the design of the Living Standards Measurement Study Survey (LSMS) in 1999. The purpose of the survey was to collect data needed for assessing the living standards of the population and for providing the key indicators needed for social and economic policy formulation. The survey was to provide data at the country and the entity level and to allow valid comparisons between entities to be made.

The LSMS survey was carried out in the Fall of 2001 by the three statistical organizations with financial and technical support from the Department for International Development of the British Government (DfID), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Japanese Government, and the World Bank (WB). The creation of a Master Sample for the survey was supported by the Swedish Government through SIDA, the European Commission, the Department for International Development of the British Government and the World Bank.

The overall management of the project was carried out by the Steering Board, comprised of the Directors of the RS and FBiH Statistical Institutes, the Management Board of the State Agency for Statistics and representatives from DfID, UNDP and the WB. The day-to-day project activities were carried out by the Survey Mangement Team, made up of two professionals from each of the three statistical organizations.

The Living Standard Measurement Survey LSMS, in addition to collecting the information necessary to obtain a comprehensive as possible measure of the basic dimensions of household living standards, has three basic objectives, as follows:

1. To provide the public sector, government, the business community, scientific institutions, international donor organizations and social organizations with information on different indicators of the population’s living conditions, as well as on available resources for satisfying basic needs.

2. To provide information for the evaluation of the results of different forms of government policy and programs developed with the aim to improve the population’s living standard. The survey will enable the analysis of the relations between and among different aspects of living standards (housing, consumption, education, health, labor) at a given time, as well as within a household.

3. To provide key contributions for development of government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, based on analyzed data.

Geographic coverage

National coverage. Domains: Urban/rural/mixed; Federation; Republic

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

A total sample of 5,400 households was determined to be adequate for the needs of the survey: with 2,400 in the Republika Srpska and 3,000 in the Federation of BiH. The difficulty was in selecting a probability sample that would be representative of the country's population. The sample design for any survey depends upon the availability of information on the universe of households and individuals in the country. Usually this comes from a census or administrative records. In the case of BiH the most recent census was done in 1991. The data from this census were rendered obsolete due to both the simple passage of time but, more importantly, due to the massive population displacements that occurred during the war.

At the initial stages of this project it was decided that a master sample should be constructed. Experts from Statistics Sweden developed the plan for the master sample and provided the procedures for its construction. From this master sample, the households for the LSMS were selected.

Master Sample [This section is based on Peter Lynn's note "LSMS Sample Design and Weighting - Summary". April, 2002. Essex University, commissioned by DfID.]

The master sample is based on a selection of municipalities and a full enumeration of the selected municipalities. Optimally, one would prefer smaller units (geographic or administrative) than municipalities. However, while it was considered that the population estimates of municipalities were reasonably accurate, this was not the case for smaller geographic or administrative areas. To avoid the error involved in sampling smaller areas with very uncertain population estimates, municipalities were used as the base unit for the master sample.

The Statistics Sweden team proposed two options based on this same method, with the only difference being in the number of municipalities included and enumerated. For reasons of funding, the smaller option proposed by the team was used, or Option B.

Stratification of Municipalities

The first step in creating the Master Sample was to group the 146 municipalities in the country into three strata- Urban, Rural and Mixed - within each of the two entities. Urban municipalities are those where 65 percent or more of the households are considered to be urban, and rural municipalities are those where the proportion of urban households is below 35 percent. The remaining municipalities were classified as Mixed (Urban and Rural) Municipalities. Brcko was excluded from the sampling frame.

Urban, Rural and Mixed Municipalities: It is worth noting that the urban-rural definitions used in BiH are unusual with such large administrative units as municipalities classified as if they were completely homogeneous. Their classification into urban, rural, mixed comes from the 1991 Census which used the predominant type of income of households in the municipality to define the municipality. This definition is imperfect in two ways. First, the distribution of income sources may have changed dramatically from the pre-war times: populations have shifted, large industries have closed and much agricultural land remains unusable due to the presence of land mines. Second, the definition is not comparable to other countries' where villages, towns and cities are classified by population size into rural or urban or by types of services and infrastructure available. Clearly, the types of communities within a municipality vary substantially in terms of both population and infrastructure.

However, these imperfections are not detrimental to the sample design (the urban/rural definition may not be very useful for analysis purposes, but that is a separate issue). [Note: It may be noted that the percent of LSMS households in each stratum reporting using agricultural land or having livestock is highest in the "rural" municipalities and lowest in the "urban" municipalities. However, the concentration of agricultural households is higher in RS, so the municipality types are not comparable across entities. The percent reporting no land or livestock in RS was 74.7% in "urban" municipalities, 43.4% in "mixed" municipalities and 31.2% in "rural" municipalities. Respective figures for FbiH were 88.7%, 60.4% and 40.0%.]

The classification is used simply for stratification. The stratification is likely to have some small impact on the variance of survey estimates, but it does not introduce any bias.

Selection of Municipalities

Option B of the Master Sample involved sampling municipalities independently from each of the six strata described in the previous section. Municipalities were selected with probability proportional to estimated population size (PPES) within each stratum, so as to select approximately 50% of the mostly urban municipalities, 20% of the mixed and 10% of the mostly rural ones. Overall, 25 municipalities were selected (out of 146) with 14 in the FbiH and 11 in the RS. The distribution of selected municipalities over the sampling strata is shown below.

Stratum / Total municipalities Mi / Sampled municipalities mi 1. Federation, mostly urban / 10 / 5 2. Federation, mostly mixed / 26 / 4 3. Federation, mostly rural / 48 / 5 4. RS, mostly urban /4 / 2 5. RS, mostly mixed /29 / 5 6. RS, mostly rural / 29 / 4

Note: Mi is the total number of municipalities in stratum i (i=1, … , 6); mi is the number of municipalities selected from stratum

Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is a crucial economic indicator that represents the average economic output per person in a given country or region. It is calculated by dividing the total GDP by the population size. This metric is often used to compare the economic performance of different countries and assess the relative prosperity of their citizens. Two commonly used versions of this indicator are GDP per capita at current prices and GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). GDP per capita at current prices reflects the total economic output of a country divided by its population, using the market prices of goods and services at the time of measurement. This metric provides a snapshot of the economic activity within a country without adjusting for inflation or differences in the cost of living across regions. Global GDP per capita at current prices (PPP) provides a measure of the average economic output per person, adjusted for the differences in the cost of living between countries. This adjustment allows for a more accurate comparison of living standards and economic productivity across different nations.

Abstract

The Tajik Living Standards Survey (TLSS) was conducted jointly by the State Statistical Agency and the Center for Strategic Studies under the Office of the President in collaboration with the sponsors, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank (WB). International technical assistance was provided by a team from the London School of Economics (LSE). The purpose of the survey is to provide quantitative data at the individual, household and community level that will facilitate purposeful policy design on issues of welfare and living standards of the population of the Republic of Tajikistan in 1999.

Geographic coverage

National coverage. The TLSS sample was designed to represent the population of the country as a whole as well as the strata. The sample was stratified by oblast and by urban and rural areas.

The country is divided into 4 oblasts, or regions; Leninabad in the northwest of the country, Khatlon in the southwest, Rayons of Republican Subordination (RRS) in the middle and to the west of the country, and Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) in the east. The capital, Dushanbe, in the RRS oblast, is a separately administrated area. Oblasts are divided into rayons (districts). Rayons are further subdivided into Mahallas (committees) in urban areas, and Jamoats (villages) in rural areas.

Analysis unit

• Households
• Individuals
• Communites

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The TLSS sample was designed to represent the population of the country as a whole as well as the strata. The sample was stratified by oblast and by urban and rural areas.

In common with standard LSMS practice a two-stage sample was used. In the first stage 125 primary sample units (PSU) were selected with the probability of selection within strata being proportional to size. At the second stage, 16 households were selected within each PSU, with each household in the area having the same probability of being chosen. [Note: In addition to the main sample, the TLSS also included a secondary sample of 15 extra PSU (containing 400 households) in Dangara and Varzob. Data in the oversampled areas were collected for the sole purpose of providing baseline data for the World Bank Health Project in these areas. The sampling for these additional units was carried out separately after the main sampling procedure in order to allow for their exclusion in nationally representative analysis.] The twostage procedure has the advantage that it provides a self-weighted sample. It also simplified the fieldwork operation as a one-field team could be assigned to cover a number of PSU.

A critical problem in the sample selection with Tajikistan was the absence of an up to date national sample frame from which to select the PSU. As a result lists of the towns, rayons and jamoats (villages) within rayons were prepared manually. Current data on population size according to village and town registers was then supplied to the regional offices of Goskomstat and conveyed to the center. This allowed the construction of a sample frame of enumeration units by sample size from which to draw the PSU.

This procedure worked well in establishing a sample frame for the rural population. However administrative units in some of the larger towns and in the cities of Dushanbe, Khojand and Kurgan-Tubbe were too large and had to be sub-divided into smaller enumeration units. Fortuitously the survey team was able to make use of information available as a result of the mapping exercise carried out earlier in the year as preparation for the 2000 Census in order to subdivide these larger areas into enumeration units of roughly similar size.

The survey team was also able to use the household listings prepared for the Census for the second stage of the sampling in urban areas. In rural areas the selection of households was made using the village registers – a complete listing of all households in the village which is (purported to be) regularly updated by the local administration. When selecting the target households a few extra households (4 in addition to the 16) were also randomly selected and were to be used if replacements were needed. In actuality non-response and refusals from households were very rare and use of replacement households was low. There was never the case that the refusal rate was so high that there were not enough households on the reserve list and this enabled a full sample of 2000 randomly selected households to be interviewed.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The questionnaire was based on the standard LSMS for the CIS countries, and adapted and abridged for Tajikistan. In particular the health section was extended to allow for more in depth information to be collected and a section on food security was also added. The employment section was reduced and excludes information on searching for employment.

The questionnaires were translated into Tajik, Russian and Uzbek.

The TLSS consists of three parts: a household questionnaire, a community level questionnaire and a price questionnaire.

Household questionnaire: the Household questionnaire is comprised of 10 sections covering both household and individual aspects.

Community/Population point Questionnaire: the Community level or Population Point Questionnaire consists of 8 sections. The community level questionnaire provides information on differences in demographic and economic infrastructure. Open-ended questions in the questionnaire were not coded and hence information on the responses to these qualitative questions is not provided in the data sets.

Summary of Section contents

The brief descriptions below provide a summary of the information found in each section. The descriptions are by no means exhaustive of the information covered by the survey and users of the survey need to refer to each particular section of the questionnaire for a complete picture of the information gathered.

Household information/roster This includes individual level information of all individuals in the household. It establishes who belongs to the household at the time of the interview. Information on gender, age, relation to household head and marital status are included. In the question relating to family status, question 7, “Nekared” means married where nekar is the Islamic (arabic) term for marriage contract. Under Islamic law a man may marry more than once (up-to four wives at any one time). Although during the Soviet period it was illegal to be married to more than one woman this practice did go on. There may be households where the household head is not present but the wife is married or nekared, or in the same household a respondent may answer married and another nekared to the household head.

Dwelling This section includes information covering the type of dwelling, availability of utilities and water supply as well as questions pertaining to dwelling expenses, rents, and the payment of utilities and other household expenses. Information is at the household level.

Education This section includes all individuals aged 7 years and older and looks at educational attainment of individuals and reasons for not continuing education for those who are not currently studying. Questions related to educational expenditures at the household level are also covered. Schooling in Tajikistan is compulsory for grades (classes) 1-9. Primary level education refers to grades 1 - 4 for children aged 7 to 11 years old. General secondary level education refers to grades 5-9, corresponding to the age group 12-16 year olds. Post-compulsory schooling can be divided into three types of school: - Upper secondary education covers the grades 10 and 11. - Vocational and Technical schools can start after grade 9 and last around 4 years. These schools can also start after grade 11 and then last only two years. Technical institutions provide medical and technical (e.g. engineering) education as well as in the field of the arts while vocational schools provide training for employment in specialized occupation. - Tertiary or University education can be entered after completing all 11 grades. - Kindergarten schools offer pre-compulsory education for children aged 3 – 6 years old and information on this type of schooling is not covered in this section.

Health This section examines individual health status and the nature of any illness over the recent months. Additional questions relate to more detailed information on the use of health care services and hospitals, including expenses incurred due to ill health. Section 4B includes a few terms, abbreviations and acronyms that need further clarification. A feldscher is an assistant to a physician. Mediniski dom or FAPs are clinics staffed by physical assistants and/or midwifes and a SUB is a local clinic. CRH is a local hospital while an oblast hospital is a regional hospital based in the oblast administrative centre, and the Repub. Hospital is a national hospital based in the capital, Dushanbe. The latter two are both public hospitals.

Employment This section covers individuals aged 11 years and over. The first part of this section looks at the different activities in which individuals are involved in order to determine if a person is engaged in an income generating activity. Those who are engaged in such activities are required to answer questions in Part B. This part relates to the nature of the work and the organization the individual is attached to as well as questions relating to income, cash income and in-kind payments. There are also a few questions relating to additional income generating activities in addition to the main activity. Part C examines employment

In the build up to the Second World War, the United States was the major power with the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in the world. In 1938, the United States also had the highest overall GDP in the world, and by a significant margin, however differences in GDP per person were much smaller. Switzerland In terms of countries that played a notable economic role in the war, the neutral country of Switzerland had the highest GDP per capita in the world. A large part of this was due to the strength of Switzerland's financial system. Most major currencies abandoned the gold standard early in the Great Depression, however the Swiss Franc remained tied to it until late 1936. This meant that it was the most stable, freely convertible currency available as the world recovered from the Depression, and other major powers of the time sold large amounts of gold to Swiss banks in order to trade internationally. Switzerland was eventually surrounded on all sides by Axis territories and lived under the constant threat of invasion in the war's early years, however Swiss strategic military planning and economic leverage made an invasion potentially more expensive than it was worth. Switzerland maintained its neutrality throughout the war, trading with both sides, although its financial involvement in the Holocaust remains a point of controversy. Why look at GDP per capita? While overall GDP is a stronger indicator of a state's ability to fund its war effort, GDP per capita is more useful in giving context to a country's economic power in relation to its size and providing an insight into living standards and wealth distribution across societies. For example, Germany and the USSR had fairly similar GDPs in 1938, whereas Germany's per capita GDP was more than double that of the Soviet Union. Germany was much more industrialized and technologically advanced than the USSR, and its citizens generally had a greater quality of life. However these factors did not guarantee victory - the fact that the Soviet Union could better withstand the war of attrition and call upon its larger population to replenish its forces greatly contributed to its eventual victory over Germany in 1945.

"Cost of living and purchasing power related to average income

We adjusted the average cost of living inside the USA (based on 2021 and 2022) to an index of 100. All other countries are related to this index. Therefore with an index of e.g. 80, the usual expenses in another country are 20% less then in the United States.

The monthly income (please do not confuse this with a wage or salary) is calculated from the gross national income per capita.

The calculated purchasing power index is again based on a value of 100 for the United States. If it is higher, people can afford more based on the cost of living in relation to income. If it is lower, the population is less wealthy.

The example of Switzerland: With a cost of living index of 142 all goods are on average about 42% more expensive than in the USA. But the average income in Switzerland of 7,550 USD is also 28% higher, which means that citizens can also afford more goods. Now you calculate the 42% higher costs against the 28% higher income. In the result, people in Switzerland can afford about 10 percent less than a US citizen."

Source: https://www.worlddata.info/cost-of-living.php

Abstract

In 2007-2008 a multi-topic household survey, the Timor Leste Survey of Living Standards (TLSLS2) was conducted in East Timor with the main objectives of developing a system of poverty monitoring and supporting poverty reduction, and to monitor human development indicators and progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. Information collected in the TLSLS2 questionnaire included: household information, housing, access to facilities, expenditures/consumption, education, health, fertility and maternity history, employment, farming and livestock, transfers, borrowing and saving, other income, social capital, subjective well-being, AIDs and anthropometrics.

The TLSLS2-X extension survey was designed to re-visit one third of the households interviewed under the TLSLS2 2007-08 to explore different facets of household welfare and behavior in the country, while also being able to make use of information collected in the TLSLS2 survey for analytic purposes.

The four new topics investigated in the extension survey are:

• Risk and Vulnerability: This section is designed to help us understand the dimensions and sources of household-level vulnerability to uninsured risks in Timor Leste, and the efficacy and welfare effects of various risk-management strategies (prevention, mitigation, coping) and mechanisms (private as well as public, formal as well as informal) households do (or do not) have access to. The work in Timor Leste is part of a program of analytic work and policy dialogue throughout the EAP region, more information on which can be found on the World Bank website.

• Land Degradation and Poverty: This section of the questionnaire is designed to identify proximate causes of deforestation through land use patterns and links with poverty; understand strengths and failures of common land resource management institutions (property rights, enforcement); understand the impact of the Siam Weed problem on household welfare.

• Justice for Poor: The Justice for the Poor/Access to Justice (J4P/A2J) module of the survey will serve mainly as an initial diagnostic for project development in the country. The topics we would be interested in covering would be Dispute Processing/Resolution; Social Legal Norms and Perceptions of Efficiency in Government (Local, Sub-District, District and National level).

• Access to Financial Services: The financial service work has the following two objectives: (i) to collect data on access to and use financial services (savings and credit), both formal and informal, and (ii) assess the quality of information on access to financial services obtained from head of households vs. from all adults - i.e. is there a bias introduced by not asking all household members, do the characteristics of the head or the household affect this (gender, age, nuclear family, urban, education levels, wealth, etc.).

Geographic coverage

National coverage. Domains: Urban/rural; Regional

Analysis unit

• Household
• Individual

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

SAMPLE DESIGN FOR THE 2007-2008 SURVEY:

The TLSLS sample was designed to have two components: (i) a cross-sectional component of 4,500 households selected with the intention of representing the current population of Timor-Leste, and (ii) a panel component of 900 households, where half of the 2001 TLSS sample of 1800 households are randomly selected and re-interviewed, with the purpose to evaluating changes in the living conditions for the same set of households between the two surveys. However, this panel component is not being released at this time, so it will be neither covered in the rest of the documentation nor included in the data files. The cross-sectional component is expected to provide independent estimates for rural and urban areas of each of five recently defined regions, which are groups of districts defined as follows: - Region 1: Baucau, Lautem and Viqueque; - Region 2: Ainaro, Manufahi and Manatuto; - Region 3: Aileu, Dili and Ermera; - Region 4: Bobonaro, Cova Lima and Liquiçá; and - Region 5: Oecussi.

The cross-sectional sample is selected in two stages. In the first stage, 300 Census Enumeration Areas (EAs) are selected as the primary sampling units (PSUs). In the second stage, 15 households are selected in each EA. The design recognizes ten explicit strata - the Urban and Rural areas in each of the five regions. The allocation of the 300 cross-sectional PSUs among regions resulted from the following line of reasoning: - In spite of their different populations and total number of households, sampling theory dictates that a sample of the roughly the same size (60 EAs) should be allocated to each region in order to produce estimates of similar quality for each of them. - A similar case could have been made for allocating a sample of the same size (30 EAs) to urban and rural areas within each region, but since the definition of urban and rural areas outside Dili was still a matter of discussion, it was decided to opt for an allocation closer to proportional: 25 EAs in Urban areas and 35 EAs to Rural areas. - Region 5 represents a special case. It is composed of a single district of difficult access (Oecussi,) that ought to be the responsibility of a dedicated team. This imposed a total sample size of 50 EAs for this region, of which only 48 can be allocated to the cross-sectional component since the panel component contains two EAs in Oecussi. - The capacity thus liberated to visit an additional 12 EAs in the rest of the country was devoted to reinforce the urban sample in Region 3, where Dili is located.

The first sampling stage used the list of 1,163 Census Enumeration Areas (EAs) generated by the 2004 Census as a sample frame. Within each stratum, the allocated number of EAs was selected with probability proportional to size (pps) using the number of households reported by the census as a measure of size. No efforts were made to append the smaller EAs to neighboring EAs, or to segment the larger EAs in order to make the size of the primary sampling units (PSUs) more uniform.

The second sampling stage used an exhaustive household listing operation in all selected EAs as its sample frame. Sample households in each EA were selected from the list by systematic equal probability sampling.

As a result of the relatively large sampling fraction in some of the strata, certain large EAs were selected more than once by the pps procedure adopted at the first sampling stage. In fact, the cross-sectional sample only consists of only 269 (rather than 300) different EAs. This necessitated selecting a multiple of 15 households (rather than just 15 households) in the EAs that were selected more than once. The final cross-sectional sample consists of 4,477 households. Table 2 shows the distribution of the total TLSLS sample across the rural and urban areas of the five main regions in the country. The sample can be considered representative at national level as well as at the level of the ten domains represented by the rural and urban areas of the five regions.

Lastly, it may be helpful to clarify the definition or urban and rural areas. At the time of the 2001 TLSS, 71 of Timor-Leste's 498 sucos were conventionally qualified as urban, of which 31 sucos in the Dili and Baucau districts were qualified as major urban centers. By the time of preparation of the sample design for the 2007 TLSLS, 60 of the 498 sucos defined by the 2001 Suco Survey were conventionally qualified as urban. The partition of the country into sucos was also modified in September 2004. With the amalgamation of several sucos, the original 498 sucos were now collapsed into 442. Many of the rearrangements took place in urban areas with the result that the 60 "old" sucos are now considered urban only constitute 38 "new" sucos.

SAMPLE DESIGN FOR THE 2008 EXTENSION SURVEY

Sampling for the TLSLS2 - Extension survey was a sub-sample of the original TLSLS2 sample. The TLSLS2 field work was divided into 52 "weeks", with each week being a random subset of the total sample. The sub-sample was chosen by randomly selecting 19 weeks from the original field work schedule.

Each week contained seven Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) for a total of 133 PSUs. In each PSU the teams were to interview 12 of the original 15 households, with the remaining three to serve as replacements. The total nominal sample size was thus 1596.

Additional interviews: Following the collection and initial analysis of the data, it was determined that data from one district, Manatuto, and partially from another district, Oecussi, were of insufficient quality in certain modules. Therefore it was decided to repeat the survey in another 25 PSUs of these two districts - six in Manatuto, and 19 in Oecussi. The additional PSUs chosen were randomly selected within the two districts from the remaining non-panel PSUs in the original TLSLS2 sample.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Cleaning operations

2008 Extension Survey Data Cleaning

The TLSLS2-X had a significant number of responses in which the response is "other". In general, if the response clear fit into a pre-coded response category, it was recoded into that category during the cleaning and compilation process. Some responses where additional information was provided were not recoded even though they clearly fit into pre-coded categories. For example, "agriculture project" would be recoded into the "agriculture" category, while "community garden" would not. Data users can either use the additional information, or re-code into categories as they see fit.

Data appraisal

Potential Data Quality Issues in 2008 Extension survey

Agriculture: Similarly to