BACKGROUND

The first Household Socio-Economic Survey was conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) in 1957, known as " The Household Expenditure Survey". This name was changed to the Household Socio-Economic Survey in 1968 - 1969 and the survey was conducted every five years. Due to the rapid economic expansion and the importance of the survey in order to set the anti-poverty policy, the Ministerial Cabinet had passed an approval on September 8, 1987 for the NSO to carry out the survey every two years. The 2000 survey is the fifteenth survey of this kind. (The 1999 was conducted special periodic survey by the cabinet assignment.)

OBJECTIVE

The primary objective of the survey is collecting information on household income and household expenditures, household consumptions, changes in assets and liabilities, the durable goods ownerships, and housing characteristics including other living conditions of households.

COVERAGE

The survey covered all private, non-institutional households residing permanently in municipal areas , sanitary districts, and villages of all regions. However, it excluded that part of the population living in transient hotels and rooming houses, hostels, boarding schools, temples, military barracks, prisons, welfare institutes, hospitals and other such institutions. It also excluded households of foreign diplomats and other temporary residents.

SURVEY CONTENTS

The survey is a representative, national, cross-sectional survey of income and expenditures in Thai households. Expenditures include durables and non-durables and are broken down into considerable details within each category ( e.g,., meat, fruit, alcohol, tobacco). Home produced consumption items such as rice are also included. Income is broken down by sources, e.g, agriculture, business, interest, remittance, etc. The survey also contains considerable demographic information, such as household size, geographic location, occupation, mobility and so on.