Household Expenditure

The HES is conducted by the Department of Statistics (DOS) once in every five years to collect detailed information on households’ expenditure and data on demographic and socio-economic characteristics as well as ownership/ availability of consumer durables. It is carried out over a one-year period to cover households’ expenditure on all festive seasons.

Findings from the latest HES 2023 are available in the Report on the Household Expenditure Survey 2023.

The sample for the HES 2023 is selected from a sampling frame comprising all residential dwelling units in Singapore, based on a stratified design with disproportionate allocation.

Dwelling units in the sampling frame were divided into different groups (or strata) using information such as broad dwelling type and geographical region. A random sample was then selected from each group and combined to form the sample of 13,100 dwelling units.

The HES is conducted under the Statistics Act 1973 which requires all selected households to provide the necessary information. All responses will be kept in accordance with the Statistics Act.

All our Department’s survey officers handling the individual survey information are required to sign the undertakings under the Statistics Act as well as the Official Secrets Act. They are fully aware of the provisions and the need to safeguard such information.

PCE and HCE are both measures of consumption spending but serve different purposes and use different methodologies. PCE is used in national accounts to measure final purchases by resident households and non-profit institutions serving households, classified by consumption purpose for economic analysis. HCE is derived from the Household Expenditure Survey (HES).  The HCE data is used to update the weighting pattern and expenditure basket for the compilation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and to analyse actual spending patterns across different household profiles and expenditure categories. 

For a detailed comparison of their differences in methodology, coverage, and applications, check out the Understanding the Differences between Private Consumption Expenditure and Household Consumption Expenditure infographic.

Decile (decile group)

A decile group is one tenth of all households arranged by their households incomes from minimum to maximum. The first decile group is the first one-tenth (i.e. 10% of all household with lowest incomes). The last decile is the one-tenth of the households with the highest incomes. Not all households are consistently in the same decile group from one year to the next.

Equivalence Scales

Equivalence scales take into account economies of scale within the household, and adjust for household size so that households of different sizes and compositions are comparable. There are different scales used by different countries and international organisations.

Expenditure

Refer to consumption expenditure incurred by households. Household consumption expenditure is the value of consumer goods and services acquired, used or paid for by a household for the satisfaction of the needs and wants of its members. Non-consumption expenditure such as loan repayments, income taxes, purchase of houses is excluded.

The consumption expenditure on owner-occupied accommodation is estimated using the rental equivalence method, which measures the shelter cost in terms of the expected rental the owner would have to pay if he were a tenant of the premises. It is estimated based on the Annual Assessed Values (AAVs) provided by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS). Monthly mortgage repayments are not included in the consumption expenditure on owner-occupied accommodation.

The imputed rental of owner-occupied accommodation is included when analysing the detailed share of household expenditure by goods and services.

Government Transfers

Government Transfers are unrequited assistance/benefits provided by the Government to households or individuals and can be in cash or in-kind. Based on international standards and guidelines, capital housing transfers (e.g. CPF Housing Grant) that are large, lump sum and one-off payments have an effect beyond the year as well as an investment impact, and hence not within the scope of household income statistics.

Government Taxes

Government Taxes are compulsory, unrequited payments made by households or individuals to the Government in cash or in-kind.

Type of Goods and Services

Expenditure by the type of goods and services are classified according to the Singapore Classification of Individual Consumption according to purpose (SCOICOP). In line with the principles of the United Nations (UN) COICOP, the SCOICOP categorises consumption expenditures according to their primary "functions" or "purposes". The expenditure items are classified into 14 broad divisions as follows:

1. Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages
2. Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco
3. Clothing and Footwear
4. Housing and Utilities
5. Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance
6. Health
7. Transport
8. Information and Communication
9. Recreation, Sport and Culture
10. Education
11. Food and Beverage Serving Services
12. Accommodation Services
13. Insurance and Financial Services
14. Personal Care, Social Services and Miscellaneous Goods and Services

Household Expenditure Survey

Please refer to the Household Expenditure Survey Glossary of Terms and Definitions.