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2004 National Survey of Family Income and Expenditures Definitions of Terms

Go to Coverage and Details of Major Durable Goods
Go to Coverage and Details of Savings and Liabilities

1. Number of Tabulated Households, Distribution of Households (Based on the Adjusted Sampling Ratio) and 1/10000 Ratio

  Number of tabulated households refers to the total number of households actually used in the survey. Distribution of households (based on the adjusted sampling ratio) refers to the number of ouseholds obtained by multiplying the number of households by the adjusting coefficients which are proportionate to the inverse number of sampling ratios to obtain unbiased estimates. The sampling ratios differ from one city, town and village to another.
  Distribution of households (ten-thousandth) shows the distribution of households (based on the adjusting sampling ratio) where the number of households is assumed to equal to 10,000.

2. Division of Households

3. Receipts and Disbursements

  "Receipts" are classified into three major categories: "income" such as wages & salaries and income through business & homework, "receipts other than income" including returns from assets and monthly installments and "carry-over from the previous month".
  "Disbursements" are divided into four categories: "living expenditures" which is, what is called, living cost, "non-living expenditures" such as taxes and social insurance (the summation of "living expenditures" and "non-living expenditures" is called "expenditures"), "disbursements other than expenditures" including deposits & savings and debt payments and "carry-over to the next month".

4. Disposable Income

  Disposable income is the amount remaining after deductions from income for non-living expenditures such as taxes and social insurance premiums, or what is known as cash on hand.

5. Average Propensity to Consume

  This refers to the ratio of living expenditures to disposable income.

6. Ratio of Net Increase of Current Assets to Disposable Income

  This refers to the ratio of net increase of current assets ((Savings - Saving deposits cashed) + (Insurance premium payments - Insurance proceeds) + (Security purchases - Securities sold)) to disposable income.

7. Surplus

  This refers to the ratio of surplus (difference between income and expenditures or between disposable income and living expenditures) to disposable income.

8. Ratio of Savings to Disposable Income

  This refers to the ratio of net increase of savings ((Savings - Saving deposits cashed) + (Insurance premium payments - Insurance proceeds)) to disposable income

9. Classification according to Use and Commodities

  Two systems are used to sort consumer expenditure: use and commodities.
  The methodology for commodities categorizes articles according to the kind of commodities purchased irrespective of their use, while usage is broadly divided according to whether products are used within the household or are to be used for someone outside the family, with the portion used in the household sorted by commodity and the portion used outside the household classified as an "social expenses" if used as a gift or for entertaining someone. All other types are grouped along with items used within the household.

10. Transferred Income and Transferred Expenditure

  Transferred income is what gifts and remittance are regrouped. Transferred expenditures are what money gifts and remittance are regrouped.

11. Expenses for Education

  Not only "education" but also expenditures needed directly or indirectly for education such as school lunch, school uniforms, student's season tickets, etc. are regrouped.

12. Expenses for Reading and Recreation

  This group is regrouped in order to clarify the structural changes in expenditures relating to leisure.

13. Current Living Expenditures

  Current living expenditures conceptually corresponds to daily expenditures excluding the items of expensive and less-frequently purchase (the purchase of automobiles or electrical appliances) in order to narrow the gap between regions with small sample size.

14. Classification by Goods and Services

  In this classification, expenditures are divided into "Goods" and "Services". The following expenses are excluded from this classification: "pocket money", "money gifts", "other social expenses" and "remittance".

15. Amounts of Savings and Liabilities

  Refer to the "Coverage and Details of Savings and Liabilities." The amounts of savings and liabilities of "Income and Expenditures" are obtained from the results based on "Yearly Income and Savings Questionnaire." The resulting figures are not necessarily equal to those of "Amounts of Savings and Liabilities," since the latter included in its tabulation all the households which submitted the acceptable "Yearly Income and Savings Questionnaire," while the former excluded from its tabulation the households which did not submit "Family Account Book."

16. Number of Durable Goods Owned

  This indicates the number of major durable goods owned per 1,000 households. For the purpose of convenience, all figures show the number of units of durable goods owned.

17. Ownership of Durable Goods

  This shows the percentage of the households that own the relevant durable goods.

18. Number of Durable Goods by Year of Acquisition

  This shows the number of durable goods currently owned with the time of acquisition classified into "in the past 12 months," "in the past 1 - 5 years" and "in the past period exceeding 5 years."

19. Imputed Rent for Owned Houses

  The term "imputed rent for owned houses" refers to the rent for privately owned houses that would accrue as the rent paid from a tenant to its landlord. In this case, it is obtained by assuming that the rent is paid for the same service that is received by homeowner households through living in their house.

20. Types of Places for Purchasing

  The type of places for purchasing has been surveyed based on the types of places for purchasing indicated in the housekeeping account books for various items purchased by the households in a period of one month in November 2004. Note that this survey does not include expenses on such services as eating out and rent and utilities such as electricity, gas and tap water. The classification criteria for types of places for purchasing are as shown below:

21. Rate of Increase/Decrease

  When no particular year is given, this applies to the rate of increase or decline during the five-year period from 1999 to 2004.

22. Income Decile Groups, Income Quintile Groups

  Income decile groups refer to 10 groups of equal size, in order from the lowest annual household income to the highest, with the order proceeding "I, II, III" from the lowest income to "X" for the top. Income quintile groups, on the other hand, pair annual income deciles, I and II, III and IV and so on in single groups in order, I, II, III, up to V, starting with the lowest income segment.

23. Specific Households

  The specific households which are tabulated in this survey are as follows.

(1)Dual-income households - households which are classified as workers' households and whose head and his (or her) spouse have their own jobs. However, the households with income from agriculture, forestry or fisheries are excluded. 

(2)Household head not working - household whose head has no occupation. 

(3)Households of mother and children - households with mother and children of less than 18 years of age. 

(4)Households repaying housing loans; households having no housing loans - households possessing loans of more than 10,000 yen for purchasing houses and/or land as of November 30, 2004 in any houses and those not possessing loans in owned houses. 

(5)Households living in rented houses and rooms 

(6)A married couple and unmarried children, of which household head is the sole earner - households which are classified as workers' households, and consist of a married couple and one or more children and with head as the only one earner. 

(7)Married couple only or married couple and unmarried children - households consist of married couple only or married couple and unmarried children only, of which household head is husband or wife 

(8)Other specific households - "households with members of not working and seeking work", "households with university or college students", "households owning cars", "households with members of official certification for nursing care needs" and "households with members away from home".

24. Household Assets Included in Evaluation

  Household assets that are included in evaluation are: Financial assets (current amount of savings - current amount of liabilities), house & residential land and major durable goods. Refer to the "Evaluation method of household real assets" for the method of converting real assets to the value of financial assets.

25. Financial Assets

   Refer to the "Coverage and Details of Savings and Liabilities."

26. Real Assets

(i)House

(ii)Residential land

Note: Residential land means the residential land recorded in the register and owned land to construct houses.

(iii)Durable goods

Refer to the "Coverage and Details of Major Durable Goods." In principle, the goods whose purchases price is 10,000 yen and over and durable year is 5 years and longer.

27. Classification of Geographical Area

1.City Group

2.Districts

Coverage and Details of Savings and Liabilities 

1. Coverage and Details of Savings and Liabilities Covered by the Survey

- Total amount of savings is the sum of deposits to post offices, banks and other financial institutions; premiums for life insurance and damage insurance; securities including stocks and shares, bonds, trusts, etc.; deposits at non-financial institutions such as companies.

- As for savings, in the case of life insurance and damage insurance, the amount of savings denotes the accumulated total of the premiums paid since the insurance became effective, while in the case of stocks and shares, it is a value of market price. In the case of bonds, loan trust and money in trust, it is a face value. Damage insurance was included in the savings from the 1989 survey, and gold investment account and gold saving account from the 1994 survey.

- Total amount of liabilities is the sum of the money borrowed not only from financial institutions such as post offices, banks, life insurance companies, Housing Loan Corporation, etc., but also from the companies persons work for, employment's mutual associations, relatives and acquaintances, outstanding balance of monthly or yearly installments, etc.

2. Details and Remarks of Savings and Liabilities

Coverage and Details of Major Durable Goods 

1. Coverage of durable goods

2. Durable Goods in Need of Some Comments

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