Brief Introduction
I. Main Contents
Data in this chapter show the people’s living
conditions in
II. Sources of Data on the Living Conditions
of Urban Residents
Data on the living condition of urban
residents come from the data collected through a sample survey on the urban
households conducted by the Office of Household Surveys of the NBS. The main
contents of the survey include persons in the household and the household
composition; cash income and expenditure of the household; quantity of major
commodities purchased and expenditure; the employment of household members; the
housing condition; and the possession of durable consumer goods.
III. Methodology for Urban Household Survey
Urban household survey is organized by the Office
of Household Survey of the NBS. The NBS survey offices in the provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government as
well as the survey offices in selected cities and counties are responsible for
collecting data in accordance with the survey scheme stipulated by the NBS and
submitting the data to the offices at higher levels.
The survey had covered only non-farm households until
2001. Starting from 2002, the survey covers the households in district areas of
all city and county towns.
Sample cities and towns in urban areas are selected by
using stratified random sampling method. Firstly, all the urban areas and towns
of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central
Government) are stratified into three strata according to population size:
large and medium-sized cities (at and above prefecture level), county cities
and county towns; secondly, the sample size is decided by proportion of
population in selected stratus to the provincial total; thirdly, cities and
towns are arranged in ranking the annual average wages of the employed persons,
then with the accumulative population in each city and town sample cities and
towns are selected by systematic sampling scheme according to the size of the
samples.
The selection of sample households in urban areas is done by two steps:
the first step is to have a one-off large sample survey; the second step is to
select a small sample from the large sample to be used as regular sample households
for diaries.
The large sample survey is conducted for every three years; the objective
is to provide sample frame for regular surveys and basic information for data
evaluation of regular surveys. In the large sample survey, samples in sample
cities and towns are selected by systematic sampling method schemes, such as two-phase
sampling and stratifying method, two-stage (multi) method and probability proportional
to size (PPS) method. Namely, stratification is done at district level, and
then PPS systematic sampling method is used to select sample
communities/resident’s committees, finally the same method is used to select
dwellings from the selected districts/resident’s committees. In some large
cities, three-stage sampling method is used. First, the communities/resident’s
committees are selected. Secondly, sample districts are selected. Thirdly,
sample dwellings are selected. A survey will be conducted to the large samples
or the first phase samples to collect relevant information on household
population, persons employed, income and so on. Then
grouping is made based on the information collected, small samples or the
second phase samples are selected according to proportions which are regular
sample households to keep diary.
The national sample included 65,000 households at the end of 2010.
IV. Sources of Data on the Living Conditions
of Rural Residents
Data on the living conditions of rural
residents come from data collected through the sample survey on rural
households, which is organized by the Office of Household Survey of the NBS.
The main contents of the survey include the basic condition of rural
households, housing conditions, income, consumption expenditure, consumption of
major consumer goods and the quantity of durable consumer goods owned.
V. Methodology for Rural Household Survey
Sample survey on rural households is
conducted by first selecting sampled villages and then selecting households in
the selected villages in each province, with all rural households in the
province as the population. A combination of various sampling approaches is
used to identify a total of 68,000 households selected from 7,100 villages
throughout the whole country.
It is required that the sampling error
should not exceed ±3%, with a confidence probability as 95%. In order to ensure
the accuracy of the survey data on the rural households, two accounts are
designed for the respondent households by the Office of Household Survey of the
NBS: the cash account and the account on goods in kind. Nearly 10 thousand
assistant enumerators have been recruited to help the households keep good
accounts and to check on a timely fashion and to and tabulate the data from the
survey.
In order to overcome the tedium of respondent households and
to ensure that the sample is accurately representative over time and reflects
the changing rural social and economic situation, a rotation sampling scheme is
implemented, and the complete cycle of rotation is 5 years.