Income Study 2004, person file

Statistics Norway (SSB) conducted wide-ranging Income Studies in 1958, 1962, 1967, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1979 and 1982. As of 1984, SSB moved to a system of annual surveys. This entailed changes more in terms of sample size and sampling method than the type of information that was collected. The information is mainly decided by what is available in public tax assessment records.

The Income Studies should not be considered ordinary sample surveys, they are based on a sample drawn from registers from the Norwegian equivalent to the Internal Revenue Service. This means that foreign citizens would be part of the sample if they are registered in the Central Person Register, which they will normally be if they have valid work and residence permits. Children born during the year in question will be included in the sample regardless of birth date, and so will people who died that the year.

The objective of the Income Studies have been to elucidate the income conditions for the entire population and for different groups. A main point is to gather statistics on households (defined as people who live and eat together), as well as getting an overview of the distribution of persons and households by size of income, socio-economic groups, household type, geography etc. Another objective is to collect income and fortune data as a backdrop for the Level of Living and Consumer surveys. Information is gathered on all types of income, fortune, taxes, income for individuals and households. Some information is added from other registers (amongst others, marital status and family composition), whilst information on household composition is gathered through interviews. In addition, one generally includes information on education, profession and occupation for individuals, and composition, type and primary income recipients for the households.

There exist both a household file and a person file. These are documented separately. This is the person file for 2004.