What is the ECHP?

Comparative Survey of European Households

The European Community Household Panel (ECHP) is a representative longitudinal survey on the social situation of private households.  It was launched in 1994 by EUROSTAT as a comparative European project among member countries of the European Union.

Austria has joined the ECHP in 1995 following a feasibility study (1994) and pilot survey (1995). At that time about 60.000 households and 130.000 individuals over 15 years were interviewed in 13 European countries. In Austria the number of households was 3.377, the number of individual respondents was 7.434.

Information on Social Policy relevant issues

The objective of the ECHP is to collect social policy relevant comparative information on income and living conditions. The questionnaire programme is harmonised so that identical variables are available across all the participating countries. Major topics are personal and household-income, housing, work, education and general conditions of living. Because of the vast variety of social indicators contained in a single survey, the ECHP is an exceptionable data source for the investigation of social inequalities, exclusion and poverty.

Longitudinal Design

The ECHP is a panel survey where households of the original sample are traced over time. A contact with the original sample households and so-called “split-off” household is attempted every year. In 2000 the four waves of the ECHP in Austria were completed and a user-friendly and comprehensive CD-ROM distributed. An updated version including wave 5 will be released by the end of 2001. The fieldwork for wave 6 started in October 2000 and was finished by February 2001. The edited data will be available by the end or the year. Wave 7 which will be the final wave of the ECHP in Austria, is in preparation and the field work will start in September 2001. Through the comprehensive survey contents and the panel design of the survey it is possible to monitor social changes. One particular research question with respect to social dynamics is the analysis of ways out of and into poverty and unemployment. Detailed analysis on four waves of the ECHP were recently published in the ICCR-Working Paper Series (No. 508).

Official Social statistics and ambitious scientific research

Its comprehensiveness and comparative design make the ECHP both a core source for official social statistics as well as it is an extremely valuable resource for scientific research. This is particularly shown in the institutional setting of the ECHP in Austria: The project is being carried out by the ICCR in co-operation with the two Austrian market research institutes IFES and FESSEL under the auspices of the Austrian Federal Statistical Institute (Statistik Austria). The Austrian ECHP is jointly funded by EUROSTAT and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.