Income- and Property Survey 1982, Individual Level Data

Statistics Norway have conducted comprehensive Income and Property in 1958, 1962, 1967, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1979 and 1982. From 1984, Statistics Norway changed to another system with annual surveys, however the changes made were mostly the sample sizes, and not the information collected. The information collected is mainly decided through the information available in the public taxation data. The income and property surveys are not considered ordinary sample surveys as the surveys are based on samples drawn from the Norwegian Tax Administrations registers. This entails that foreign nationals are included in the surveys if they are registered in the national register, which they would normally be if they have a working or residence permit. Children born in the course of the year will be included no matter their birth date, and the same applies for persons that deceased in the course of the year.

The Income and Property survey 1982 was distinguished from earlier income and property surveys - as the sample was influenced by the survey being connected to the Level of Living Survey 1983, the Survey of Consumer Expenditure 1982, The Labour Force Survey 1983 and part of the material for the elders Level of Living survey. The sample therefore consisted of 4 independent self-weighted samples, a total of 8.845 households or 24.453 persons. The purpose of the surveys has been to shed light on income situation for the whole population and for different groups. A main point is to create statistics concerning households that live and eat together, to create an outline of the distribution of persons and households after income size, socioeconomic groups, household type, geography, ect. Information concerning all forms of income, property, tax deduction, dispositional income for individuals and households was collected. This data was mainly collected from the Norwegian Tax Administrations registers. Some information was connected from other registers; this mainly concerns marital status and family compositions, while information concerning household compositions is collected through interviews. Family is a narrower term than household, a family can consist of singles, unmarried fathers or mothers with children, or married couples with or without children. A household can on the contrary include all persons that live and eat together and can therefore consist of several families. Experience shows however that around 90% of all households only consists of one family. (See NOS B 569). Tax-free incomes, as for instance social benefits, gifts and winnings will not be included because of the tax rules. Rules for imputed rental value/income of property, value determination of benefits, private outlets, and impairments etc. also created some problems.

In addition to the tax information it is usually included information concerning among other things education, profession and industry for individuals and for the household: composition, type and the persons considered main provider. An important problem with the 1982-data was that the individuals-data file does not contain household numbers. That is why the two files on household and individual level cannot be connected.