Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

Description

The Consumer Expenditure Survey - POF assesses the structures of consumption, expenditures, income and part of the asset variation of the households, providing a profile of the life conditions of the population based on the analysis of the household budgets. In addition to the information directly associated with the budget structure, a number of characteristics of the housing units and households are also investigated, including the subjective self-assessment of life quality. The results of the survey also allow to study the composition of the household expenditures according to the income classes, regional disparities, urban and rural status, diffusion and volume of transfers between different income classes, as well as the dimension of the consumer market for groups of products and services.  The survey has the household as the investigation unit and it is based on sampling. 

The 2008-2009 POF was the fifth survey carried out by the IBGE on household budget. The previous editions were: the 1974-1975 National Study of Household Expenditure - ENDEF, with a nationwide coverage, except for the rural areas of the North and Central-West Regions; the 1987-1988 POF; the 1995-1996 POF; and the 2002-2003 POF. The Consumer Expenditure Surveys of the 1980s and 1990s were conceived to primarily update the consumer structures of the consumer price indexes produced by the IBGE, being accomplished in the Metropolitan Areas of Belém, Fortaleza, Recife, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Curitiba and Porto Alegre, in the Municipality of Goiânia, and in the Federal District. Besides covering the entire Brazilian territory, the POFs of the 2000s included additional subjects over the previous editions, due to the need of detailed information on the life conditions based on the consumption, particularly of the households with lower income, the reason why the rural area was included in the geographic coverage and the non-monetary purchases were also investigated.

The current sample design of POF was structured in such a way that it releases the results at the following levels: Brazil, Major Regions and also by urban or rural status. The results include the totals and the urban situation for the Federation Units. The results correspond to the urban situation in the nine Metropolitan Areas and Municipalities of the Capitals. As of the project called Master Sample, developed by the IBGE to implement the Integrated System of Household Surveys - SIPD, the Consumer Expenditure Surveys had the sample design defined by the Master Sample, and its sectors selected among those from that sample.