1. LAMAS Working Group 6-7 December 2017
Agenda Item 2.6 Household weighting
Eurostat

2. Background Selection of reference person Household weighting
-> Interlinked topics!
'Reference person' selection matters for:
Relationship of all members of the household: HHLINK (plus HHSPOU, HHFATH, HHMOTH)
Household level analyses: reference person weight
Document and presentations based on consultation results and Eurostat calculations

3. Reference person Sample of individuals: person originally drawn
Sample of household/address/dwelling sample: an adult HH member
Who selects? HH respondents vs. NSI criteria
How (NSIs)? Often linked to (economic) importance for the HH
Resulting in
Reference person distribution by sex / age groups differs significantly (across countries / vs. total population)
Impact on household level results (for around ½ of the countries; different degree)
Standardisation difficult…
If not all HH members have identical weights, there is an impact of the choice of the reference person on household level results (even in countries sampling individuals)

4. Reference person IESS: construction of simplified HH matrix
For each HH member!
Based on HHLINK (depending on reference person), HHSPOU, HHFATH, HHMOTH
(Only) future requirement for the selection of the reference person (explanatory notes)?
YES: 22 NO: 1 Other: 8
Update list of categories of HHLINK accordingly
EoV: 28 EU + NO, IS, CH
No: DK (sample of individuals) – it might indeed require further analysis whether the automatic assignment of the originally drawn person as reference person is the best option
No reference to HH weighting: decoupling!

5. Household weighting
Calculation of weights to be taken for household analyses based on:
Individual level information: all countries
HH level information (number of households, household size distribution,…): around half of the countries
Identical weights for all HH members in more than half of the countries
Number of HHs used in: DK, LU, FI, ES, FR, IT, CY, LT, HU, AT, RO

6. Household weighting Weighting schemes analysed:
Reference person weight
Average household weight
(Average household weights for adults)
Census 2011 results -> average household weight
Eurostat to switch from reference person weight to average household weight?
YES: 18 NO: 3 Other: 10
Number of HHs used in: DK, ES, FR, IT, CY, LT, LU, HU, AT, RO, FI
Average HH weight would lead to visible revisions for BG, DK, EE, GR, SK
No: FR, LV, AT – all of them provide identical weights for all household members already -> misunderstanding?

7. Household weighting Number of households Census 2011 vs. LFS:
Some countries with differences of 5% or more: DE, EL, MT, SE, UK
None of them using 'number of households' in the weighting
Future weighting to include constraint on number of households from external sources (censuses, other available figures)?
YES: 14 NO: 8 Other: 9
No: DE, EE, IE, HR, LV, HU, NL, UK

8. Household weighting EoV: Inclusion useful if
Reliable, regularly updated external source(s) are available
For the same reference periods as the LFS
Use of future rolling census results?
Register data
Household = Dwelling?
SILC: use of such external information!
-> to be further analysed…

9. Household weighting Who shall/can transmit special household weights?
Countries with household sub-sampling: required
All other countries: optional
Household weights are used to calculate results at household and individual level (persons, adults)
-> Prior bilateral agreement on exact conditions and procedure

10. Conclusions LAMAS is asked to support
the flexibility to define the reference person under basic constraints allowing derivation of the simplified household matrix;
the change to the average household weight for household level analyses (already before IESS);
further analysis on the inclusion of the number of households (census and/or other more frequent available data at national level) in the household weighting requirements.