Survey on Household Income and Wealth (2012)

The Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) is conducted every two years by the Bank of Italy on a sample of about 8,000 households and 24,000 individuals. In 2012 8,151 households have made up the sample from 371 municipalities, composed by 20,022 individuals of whom 12,986 earners. The households interviewed for the first time in this survey were 3,540 and the other 4,611 were panel households. The questionnaire consists of several thematic sections, which are further articulated within, and it is structured in such a way to ensure comparability with the information collected in the previous surveys: Family structure: sociodemographic characteristics of family members Employment and incomes: salary, work characteristics, sector of professional activities for each member Payment instruments and forms of saving: relations with financial institutions, use of payment instruments, savings and investments, expectations toward the future Principal residence, other property and debts: characteristics of property owned, mortgage loans, rents, property expenditures, other debts not in connection with business activity Household expenditures: purchase and sales of goods, average monthly spending on all consumption (food and non-food), perception of the expenditures compared to the past and the future, savings propensity Supplementary pension plans and insurance policies: characteristics of supplementary pension plans owned, life insurance, health insurance, household insurance The questionnaire has also a in-depth focus (annexes) for each professional condition (payroll employees, self-employed worker, family business, working shareholder/partner, pensions and other income sources) and loans (loans for main residence, for other properties than principal residence, for consumer credit, for business purposes). For each section and annex of the questionnaire is released a single file. The Bank of Italy has constructed a set of addictional files concerning to the household and individual incomes, household expenditure and savings, household wealth and about individuals that left the panel household.