Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2023
Samoa, 2023
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SAM_2023_HIES_v01_M_PUF
Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2023
HIES 2023
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Samoa | WSM |
Income/Expenditure/Household Survey [hh/ies]
The Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) is conducted every 5 years. The first HIES survey was conducted in 1997 and the fifth survey was conducted in 2023.
The 2023 HIES is the fifth such survey conducted by the Samoa Bureau of Statistics since the first one in 1997. The 2023 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) was conducted in four rounds within a twelve month period from February to November 2018.
The 2023 HIES collected information on Income and Expenditure of sampled households in order to provide information on the economic characteristics of all households in Samoa. The main objectives of the survey are:
- CPI Re-base: To obtain expenditure weights, review the “basket of goods and services,” understand where consumers purchase goods and services, and other useful data for the revision of the Consumer Price Index.
- Hardship Analysis: To provide data to determine the extent of hardship and vulnerability of households in Samoa.
- National Accounts: To supplement the data available for use in compiling official estimates of household accounts in the systems of national accounts.
Sample survey data [ssd]
Household and Individual.
Version
v1.0 Edited , anonymized and packaged for public distribution.
2026-05-03T11:00:00.000Z
Samoa Bureau of Statistics
Scope
-HOUSEHOLD: Dwelling characteristics, Housing expenditure, Household operations, Food expenditure; Sanitation; Water access; Energy; Agriculture; Fisheries; Hunting; Handicraft; Transport; Travel; Financial support; Ceremonies; Food insecurity; Legal services; Remittances.
-INDIVIDUAL: Demographic characteristics; Education; Health; Communication; Alcohol and narcotics; Other individual expenditure; Economic activities; Income.
Coverage
The survey covered all households except households of diplomats.
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Samoa Bureau of Statistics | Government of Samoa |
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Statistics for Development Division | Pacific Community (SPC) | Technical assistance |
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Government of Samoa | Funding |
| Australia High Commission to Samoa | Financial assistance |
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Asian Development Bank | Technical assistance | |
| Food and Agriculture Organization | United Nations | Technical assistance |
Sampling
The 2023 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) sample was designed with the objective of generating national estimates of annual average household expenditure with a Relative Standard Error (RSE) of less than 3%, and the same estimate by the four regions of Samoa - Apia Urban Area (AUA), North-West Upolu (NWU), Rest of Upolu (ROU), and Savai'i (SAV) - with a RSE of less than 5%. The estimates would therefore be considered to be highly reliable at both the national and regional level, as well as by urban-rural areas, however as the estimates are disaggregated (e.g., average household expenditure on specific items, such as food, education, health, transport), the higher the RSE and the less accurate the estimate. The HIES sample was not designed to report at a lower geographic level than the four regions of Samoa.
A total of 3,381 households were selected to participate in the Samoa 2023 HIES, with 1,045 selected for AUA region, 1,068 in NWU, 645 in ROU, and 623 in SAV. The 2021 Population and Housing Census was used as the sampling frame, and a stratified two-stage sample design was adopted where the enumeration area (EA) was first selected, then 14 households per cluster (i.e., EA) were selected in the second stage.
The final sample size was 3,074 households with a response rate of 99.4%. The final sample represents a sampling fraction of 10% of all households in Samoa, 15% of households in AUA, 8% in NWU, 8% in ROU, and 9% in SAV.
Apia Urban Area: 98.7%
North-West of Upolu: 99.6%
Rest of Upolu: 100%
Savai’i: 99.5%
SAMOA: 99.4%
Based on the final response of 3,074 households, sampling weights were derived using the inverse of the probability of selection. To ensure the extrapolated HIES sample is representative of the age and sex distribution of Samoa, the probability weights were calibrated based on the 2021 population and housing census using Stata command ‘sreweight’
Survey instrument
The questionnaire was developed in English with Samoan translation using the Survey Solutions Designer. The questionnaire was based on the Pacific regional standard HIES questionnaire, which has been subject to review and endorsement of the Pacific Statistics Methods Board. The questionnaire was divided into six modules, administered at either the individual or household level, and included the following nine sections:
-Cover page (geographic area)
-Additional identification (interview information)
-Module 1: household member roster (list of all current household members)
-Module 2: person details (education, health, communication, alcohol, other individual expenditure, labour force)
-Module 3: food consumption recall (selection of food items that the household consumed in the last 7 days)
-Module 4: non-household member meal partakers (list of non-household members who consumed food in the dwelling)
-Module 5: non-food consumption recall (expenditure on hygenic products, miscellaneous items and services)
-Module 6: household characteristics (dwelling characteristics and expenditure, energy and water source, sanitation facility, information technology access and expenditure, dwelling tenure status and expenditure, household asset ownership, household maintenance, vehicle ownership).
The questionnaire is provided in this documentation in English.
Data was captured using the World Bank's tool Survey Solutions via tablets.
Data collection
| Start | End | Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-03-01 | 2023-12-01 | Data collection |
- Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]
| Name | Affiliation | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| Samoa Bureau of Statistics | Government of Samoa | SBS |
Four enumeration teams were formed, consisting of 3 enumerators and 1 supervisor in AUA and NWU region, and 2 enumerators and 1 supervisor in ROU and SAV region. Field operations and the 14-field staff were supervised by SBS staff of the Economic Statistics Division.
Field operations and the 14-field staff were supervised by SBS staff of the Economic Statistics Division, who also undertook the responsibility of reviewing questionnaires following approval by the supervisors. The HIES Manager was the Assistant CEO of the Economic Statistics Division of SBS, and technical assistance was primarily provided by the Pacific Community (SPC) with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The enumeration teams and SBS staff participated in a one-week training in December 2022, which was followed by a one-month pilot of data collection where the questionnaire was tested and field staff and SBS were given the opportunity to practice enumeration prior to the HIES. The main HIES training occurred for two-weeks in late-January 2023, and further field tests occurred in February and March before the commencement of the HIES. Field staff were provided with a questionnaire manual and training materials as references during field operations. They were also provided with a map with the location of the selected households, and the name of the household head to assist with locating each selected household, within each selected cluster.
Data were collected from March to December 2023, with around 6% of the sample being collected in March, and 10 to 14% of the sample being collected each month from April to December. Data collection was broken up into 36 week-long rounds where field teams completed all assigned interviews in a cluster during the round, before moving on to the next selected cluster in the next round. Data were collected using android tablets and Survey Solutions software developed by the World Bank.
Data processing
Data was cleaned, edited and imputed using the Stata version 15 software.
Data Access
| Name | Affiliation | URL |
|---|---|---|
| Samoa Bureau of Statistics | Government of Samoa | https://www.sbs.gov.ws/contact-us/ |
| Is signing of a confidentiality declaration required? | Confidentiality declaration text |
|---|---|
| yes | No access. |
Datasets not available.
Disclaimer and copyrights
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | URL |
|---|---|---|
| Samoa Bureau of Statistics | Government of Samoa | https://www.sbs.gov.ws/contact-us/ |
Metadata production
DDI_SAM_2023_HIES_v01
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Samoa Bureau of Statistics | SBS | Metadata preparation |
2026-01-31T11:00:00.000Z
Metadata version
1.0
2026-01-11T11:00:00.000Z
SBS