Housing and income survey

The sample persons of the Housing and Income Survey represent the population aged 18 to 74 permanently resident in Finland. The sample size of the survey is 4,000 persons four times per year and different persons are contacted in each survey round.

Participation in the survey is voluntary. In order for the survey to be successful it is, however, important to include the answers from as many persons as possible selected to the sample to represent all Finns.

The respondents to the Housing and Income Survey have been drawn randomly from Statistics Finland's database on the population of Finland. A person selected to the survey can be any person living in Finland who is at least 18 years old but at most 74 years old.

The statistics and research data compiled based on the Housing and Income Survey are used to monitor and analyse households' economic livelihood and living conditions in public administration, organisations, research institutes and business life, both in Finland and abroad, particularly in EU countries.

Some of the questions of the Housing and Income Survey concern the household of the person selected for the survey, some of the questions are specific for the individual. Thus, if necessary, the target person can ask for help from other household members when answering household-specific questions.

You can participate in the survey in Finnish, Swedish or English.

Your personal data are processed based on the public interest referred to in Article 6, Paragraph 1, point e of the EU General Data Protection Regulation. The answers of an individual person cannot be identified in the statistics to be published. The Statistics Act (280/2004) obliges Statistics Finland to treat the data as confidential. The data are used only for statistical and research purposes.

The persons selected for the survey have been drawn randomly and no respondent can be replaced with another one.

The survey is based on so-called random sampling where the respondents are drawn randomly from Statistics Finland's database on the population of Finland. The group of respondents is drawn as exhaustively as possible, for example, regionally. It is not possible to change the respondent and those who refuse to respond are simply excluded from the data. This makes the results less accurate and reliable especially in population groups with persons similar to those having refused to answer. Therefore, each respondent is important and cannot be replaced in any way.

It is very important that each person selected for the survey participates, as no respondent can be replaced with another respondent. One selected person represents over one thousand other persons living in Finland. Refusal to respond to the survey means that it is not possible to obtain as accurate information as needed about housing and income concerning persons in a similar life situation.
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⁠Everyone's response is important in order for the published statistics to give a reliable and accurate picture of the financial and social situation of Finnish households.