Working Group

Household Surveys

This working group will support the development of household survey-based indicators, maintain definitions of indicators calculated from survey data, contribute to the harmonization of survey data used by different organizations, and prepare guidelines for producers and users of survey data.

Household surveys include multipurpose, income and expenditure, and labour force surveys, as well as population censuses.

The key issues related to the availability and use of household surveys are:

  • Household survey data are not sufficiently utilized for SDG 4 indicator measurement.
  • Estimates based on administrative data and household survey data are often inconsistent.
  • Guidelines are required for data providers (national statistical agencies and large-scale survey programmes, e.g. MICS and DHS, or repositories, e.g. IPUMS and LIS) that could be relied upon to estimate SDG indicators.
  • Methodologies need to be developed for measuring specific indicators that balance the goals of (1) accurate measurement, (2) cross-survey and cross-time comparability, and (3) widest possible coverage.
  • Methodology and criteria also need to be developed for reporting confidence intervals and standard errors as household surveys are sample-based.
  • Capacity constraints: technical capacity is lacking in many education ministries: education ministries may not have a formal partnership with statistical agencies, statistical agencies may not have a mandate or technical expertise to provide data on education indicators.

Indicator priorities

  • 4.1.2 Completion rate (primary education, lower secondary education, upper secondary education)
    • This indicator was listed as 4.1.4 prior to 2020
  • 4.1.4 Out-of-school rate (primary education, lower secondary education, upper secondary education): methodology and guidelines for measuring
    • This indicator was listed as 4.1.5 prior to 2020
  • 4.5.1 Parity indices: gender, wealth, ethnicity/language/religion, regions
  • 4.c.5 Average teacher salary relative to other professions requiring a comparable level of education (using labour force surveys)