LegalizeCommission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2242 of 16 December 2019 specifying the technical items of data sets, establishing the technical formats and specifying the detailed arrangements and content of the quality reports on the organisation of a sample survey in the income and living conditions domain pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 October 2019 establishing a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples, amending Regulations (EC) No 808/2004, (EC) No 452/2008 and (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1177/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 (1), and in particular Article 7(1), Article 8(3) and Article 13(6) thereof,
Whereas:
(1) In order to ensure the accurate implementation of the sample survey as regards the income and living conditions domain, EU-SILC, the Commission should specify the technical items of the data set, the technical formats for transmission of information and the detailed arrangements and content of the quality reports.
(2) The EU-SILC survey is a key instrument for providing information required by the European Semester and the European Pillar of Social Rights, in particular for income distribution, poverty and social exclusion, as well as various related living conditions and poverty EU policies, such as on child poverty, access to health care and other services, housing, over indebtedness and quality of life. It is also the main source of data for microsimulation purposes and flash estimates of income distribution and poverty rates.
(3) The international comparability of national and regional statistics on income and living conditions requires the use of statistical classifications for the territorial units, education, occupation and economic sector that are compatible with the NUTS (2), ISCED (3), ISCO (4) and NACE (5) classifications. The recommendations made by the United Nations in the Canberra Group Handbook on Household Income Statistics should also be taken into account.
(4) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the European Statistical System Committee,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Subject matter
This Regulation specifies the technical items of the data set, the technical formats for the transmission of information from Member States to the Commission (Eurostat) and the arrangements for transmission and the content of the quality reports in the income and living conditions domain (EU-SILC).
Article 2
Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
(1) ‘fieldwork period’ means the period during which data is collected from respondents;
(2) ‘reference period’ means the period to which a particular item of information relates;
(3) ‘cross-sectional ’ means, in reference to data, those pertaining to a particular time or a given reference period;
(4) ‘longitudinal’ means, in reference to data, those pertaining to given subsequent reference periods, observed yearly over a certain length of time with respect to the same observation unit;
(5) ‘sample person’ means a member of a private household in the initial sample who is at least 16 years old at the end of the income reference period;
(6) ‘sample household’ means a private household containing at least one sample person;
(7) ‘selected respondent model’ means a mode of sampling based on individuals where the household to which the selected respondent belongs is the sample household and the selected respondent is the sample person;
(8) ‘age’ of a person means the age in completed years at the end of income reference period,
(9) ‘current household member’ means a member of a sample household at the time of data collection or compilation;
(10) ‘co-resident’ means a current household member other than a sample person;
(11) ‘household split’ means a situation where the sample persons living in a sample household at the time of wave x, live, at the time of wave x+1, in more than one private household within the national territory included in the target population; when a household split occurs, there will be only one initial household and one or more split-off households;
(12) ‘initial household’ means a sample household which has undergone a household split and where any sample person who lived in that household at the time of wave x still lives at the same address at the time of wave x+1. If more than one sample person lived in the household at the time of the wave x and still live in that address at the time of the wave x+1 but in different households, the initial household is the household of the sample person still living at the initial address who has the lowest person number referred to in Annex III. If at the time of wave x+1 no sample person lives at the address of wave x, then the household of the sample person who had the lowest person number at the time of wave x is the initial household. If this person is no longer alive or no longer living in a private household within the national territory of the target population, the initial household is the household of the sample person with the next lowest person number. For the selected respondent model ‘initial household’ means the household of the selected respondent;
(13) ‘split-off household’ means a household composed of members of the household that has undergone a household split, other than the initial household;
(14) ‘fusion household’ means all sample persons from different sample households from the previous wave who join together to form a new household;
(15) ‘modelling’ means generating information that is missing in the data set by making use of substantive relationships with information from outside the data set;
(16) ‘collection unit’ means a household or person with certain characteristics to which or whom the information collected pertains;
(17) ‘household respondent’ means the person from whom household-level information is obtained;
(18) ‘rotational panel design’ means sample selection based on a fixed number of subsamples, each of which is representative of the target population at the time of its selection. Each year, one subsample rotates out and a new one is drawn as a substitute;
(19) ‘wave’ means a year in which a subsample is participating in the survey;
(20) ‘panel’ means a subsample observed over more than one year.
Article 3
Statistical concepts and description of variables
Member States shall use the statistical concepts laid down in Annex I.
The technical characteristics of variables shall be those laid down in Annex II and refer to:
(a) the variable’s identifier;
(b) the variable’s name;
(c) the modality label and code;
(d) the collection unit;
(e) the mode of collection;
(f) the reference period.
The variables for which missing values are not allowed and for which data shall be imputed shall be those identified in the Annex II.
All household and personal data shall be linkable for the whole duration of the panel, both for cross-sectional and for longitudinal information.
Article 4
Characteristics of the statistical populations and observation units and the rules on respondents
The target population in the income and living conditions domain shall be private households and all persons composing these households in the territory of the Member State.
Information at household and person level shall be collected or compiled for all household members, including all sample persons and co-residents as specified in Annex II. In the selected respondent model, data shall be collected through individual interviews only from selected respondents aged 16 or over. For a sample person, starting from the second wave, information shall be obtained on whether that person remained at the same address or moved to a different address from one year to the next, as well as on the new contact information in case of change.
Information on household members from the previous wave who are no longer household members shall be collected to establish whether those persons have died or whether they have moved abroad or to an institution or to a different address within the national territory.
A household shall be included for the collection or compilation of detailed information if it contains at least one sample person.
In both the initial and the split-off household, the full information required for current household members and the full information at household level shall be collected or compiled.
At least three attempts shall be made to contact a household or person before it is considered that it, he or she is non-responding, unless there are conclusive reasons why this cannot be done (such as a definite refusal to cooperate or circumstances endangering the interviewer’s safety).
Where proxy interviews are allowed, the proxy rate shall be kept as limited as possible with regard to:
(a) the income personal variables;
(b) any variables required for at least one household member aged 16 and over.
If a proxy interview is conducted, the identification of the person who has provided the information shall be recorded.
Detailed characteristics of the identification of households and persons shall be those set out in Annex III.
Article 5
Reference periods
The income reference period shall be a 12-month period, such as the previous calendar or tax year.
The reference periods for variables not referring to income shall be those specified in Annex II.
Article 6
Detailed sample characteristics
Only Member States that used the selected respondent model before 19 January 2020 shall be authorised to continue using the method over the following years.
Controlled substitutions of sample households or persons may be allowed only in the first year of each panel, if the response rate falls below 60 % and one of the following situations arises:
(a) the sample household or person is not contacted because it/she/he cannot be located or is inaccessible;
(b) the sample household or person is contacted, but the interview is not completed because the household or person refuses to cooperate, the whole household is temporarily away, the household or person is unable to respond or there are circumstances endangering the interviewer’s safety.
The set of sample households or persons for substitution shall be defined prior to data collection. There shall be no substitution with households or persons not belonging to that set.
Procedures shall be followed to ensure that the process of substitution is controlled to the maximum extent possible. Such procedures shall include using a design which ensures that the selected substitutes closely match the households or persons they replace in terms of their significant characteristics.
Small parts of a national territory amounting to no more than 2 % of the national population may be excluded from EU-SILC, as may French overseas departments and territories. Both exclusions shall not take place simultaneously.
If subpopulations covered by the survey are significantly under-represented in the achieved sample owing to specific non-response or attrition, Member States shall take measures such as oversampling, calibration or applying any relevant method to correct for the resulting bias. The methods used, their impact and any drawbacks shall be explained and assessed in the quality report.
Article 7
Data gathering periods and methods
For data directly provided by respondents, the fieldwork period shall be as close as possible to the income reference period, to minimise time lag between income and current variables.
The interval between the collection or compilation of data concerning a given household or person for successive waves shall be kept as close as possible to 12 months.
Data provided directly by respondents shall be collected by computer-assisted methods, including computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI), computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) and computer-assisted web-interview (CAWI). Justification shall be provided for any exceptions.
Article 8
Rules on follow-up
Sample persons, co-residents and sample households shall be observed for the purpose of the survey over the duration of the panel in accordance with the rules set out in paragraphs 2 to 7.
Sample persons moving to a private household within the national territory covered in the survey shall be followed to the location of the household.
Sample persons who are temporarily away from the household but who are still considered members of the household shall be covered by the survey in that household.
Sample persons who are no longer members of a private household, or who have moved outside the national territory covered in the survey or to an institution, shall be dropped from the survey.
Co-residents living in a household containing at least one sample person shall be followed.
Co-residents living in a household not containing any sample person shall be dropped from the survey.
A sample household shall be dropped from the survey in the following situations:
Article 9
Common standards for data editing, imputation, weighting and estimation
Imputation, modelling or weighting shall be applied to the data where necessary.
Where non-response to income variables at component level results in missing data, appropriate methods of statistical imputation shall be applied.
Where any net income variable at component level is collected directly, appropriate methods of statistical imputation or modelling, or both, shall be applied to obtain the required target gross variables and vice versa.
Where non-response to an individual questionnaire occurs within a sample household, appropriate statistical methods for statistical weighting or imputation shall be used to estimate the total income of the household.
The procedure applied to the data shall preserve the variation in and the correlation between variables. Methods that incorporate ‘error components’ into the imputed values shall be preferable to those that simply impute a predicted value.
Methods which take into account the correlation structure (or other characteristics of the joint distribution of the variables) shall be preferable to the marginal or univariate approach.
Article 10
Formats for transmitting information
Member States shall transmit the data that comply with the characteristics of the variables as specified in Annex II in electronic form to the Commission (Eurostat).
Member States shall transmit the data to the Commission (Eurostat) in the form of micro-data files (including appropriate weights), using the statistical data and metadata exchange standard through the single entry point to allow the Commission (Eurostat) to retrieve the data by electronic means. The data must have been fully checked and edited.
Member States shall annually transmit all the subsamples belonging to the rotational design of the given year, regardless of their duration. All the subsamples shall be transmitted together.
Member States shall provide the metadata necessary for the purpose of microsimulation in accordance with country specificities and in conformity with an appropriate classification for the variables on social benefits, using the exchange standards referred to in paragraph 2.
Article 11
Quality reporting
Member States shall apply quality evaluation criteria and the detailed content of the quality report as laid down in Annex IV.
Member States shall transmit the quality-related reference metadata required by this Regulation to the Commission (Eurostat), using the statistical data and metadata exchange standard. They shall send the metadata through the single entry point so that the Commission (Eurostat) can retrieve the data by electronic means.
Article 12
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 16 December 2019.
For the Commission The President Ursula VON DER LEYEN
(1) OJ L 261 I, 14.10.2019, p. 1.
(2) Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) (OJ L 154, 21.6.2003, p. 1).
(3) International Standard Classification of Education 2011, http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/international-standard-classification-of-education-isced-2011-en.pdf (available in English and French).
(4) Commission Recommendation of 29 October 2009 on the use of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) (OJ L 292, 10.11.2009, p. 31).
(5) Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 as well as certain EC Regulations on specific statistical domains (OJ L 393, 30.12.2006, p. 1).