Characteristics of Households - Childinfo.org

Table HH.3 provides basic background informationon the households. Within households, the sex ofthe household head, region, residence, number ofhousehold members, the education and ethnicity 3of the household head are shown in the table. Thesebackground characteristics are used in subsequenttables in this report. The figures in the table are alsointended to show the numbers of observations bymajor categories of analysis in the report.The weighted and unweighted numbers of householdsare equal, since sample weights were normalized (SeeAppendix A). The table also shows the proportions ofhouseholds with at least one child under 18, at leastone child under 5, at least one eligible woman agedbetween 15–49, and at least one eligible man agedbetween 15–29. The table also shows the weightedaverage household size estimated by the survey.The gender structure for heads of households isalmost the same, when comparing Census 2002 andMICS 2010 data. Namely, 27 percent were womenheads of household in 2002 and 28 percent in 2010.About 59 percent of households are urban, while therest are rural. The regional distribution is similar tothe Census data. The Vojvodina region comprises thelargest number of households with nearly one thirdof the total, while the smallest number of householdsis in Belgrade (about 21 percent). The majority ofhouseholds have two to four members (61 percent). In57 percent of interviewed households, there is at leastone woman aged between 15–49, and in 26 percent,a man aged between 15–29 years. In 17 percent ofinterviewed households there is at least one childunder 5 years of age and in 37 percent, a child under18 years. The survey estimated the average householdsize at 3.3 persons.Characteristics of Female Respondents15–49 Years of Age, Male Respondents15–29 Years of Age and Children Under-5Tables HH.4, HH.4M and HH.5 provide information onthe background characteristics of female respondentsbetween 15–49 years of age, men between 15–29years of age, and of children aged under-5. In alltables, the total numbers of weighted and unweightedobservations are equal, since sample weights have beennormalized (standardized). In addition to providinguseful information on the background characteristics ofwomen, men and children, the tables are also intendedto show the numbers of observations in each backgroundcategory. These categories are used in the subsequenttabulations of this report.Table HH.4 provides the background characteristics offemale respondents between 15–49 years of age. Thetable includes information on the distribution of womenaccording to region, residence, age, marital status,motherhood status, births in the two years preceding thesurvey, education 4 , wealth index quintiles 5 , and ethnicityof the head of household.3This was determined by asking the respondents what ethnic group the head of household belonged to.4Throughout this report, unless otherwise stated, “education” refers to the educational level attained by the respondent, when it is used as a backgroundvariable.5A principal components analysis was performed by using information on the ownership of consumer goods, dwelling characteristics, water and sanitation, andother characteristics that are related to the household’s wealth to assign weights (factor scores) to each of the household’s assets. Each household was thenassigned a wealth score based on these weights and the assets owned by that household. The survey household population was then ranked according to thewealth score of the household they are living in, and was finally divided into 5 equal parts (quintiles) from lowest (poorest) to highest (richest). The assets usedin these calculations were as follows: type of water and sanitation, number of rooms for sleeping per member; main material of dwelling floor, roof and exteriorwalls; the type of fuel used for cooking; presence in the household of electricity, radio, television, non-mobile telephone, refrigerator, electric stove, bed, tablewith chairs, vacuum cleaner, PC/Laptop, closet, washing machine, drying machine, air conditioner, jacuzzi tub and video monitoring system; possesion byhousehold members of watch, mobile telephone, bicycle, motorcycle or scooter, animal-drawn cart, car or truck, boat with motor, tractor; and ownership ofbank accounts by members of the household. The wealth index is assumed to capture the underlying long-term wealth through information on the householdassets, and is intended to produce a ranking of households by wealth, from poorest to richest. The wealth index does not provide information on absolutepoverty, current income or expenditure levels. The wealth scores calculated are applicable for only the particular data set they are based on. Further informationon the construction of the wealth index can be found in Filmer, D. and Pritchett, L., 2001. “Estimating wealth effects without expenditure data — or tears: Anapplication to educational enrolments in states of India”. Demography 38(1): 115–132. Gwatkin, D. R., Rutstein, S., Johnson, K., Pande, R. and Wagstaff.A., 2000. Socio-Economic Differences in Health, Nutrition, and Population. HNP/Poverty Thematic Group, Washington, DC: World Bank. Rutstein, S. O. andJohnson, K., 2004. The DHS Wealth Index. DHS Comparative Reports No. 6. Calverton, Maryland: ORC Macro.MONITORING THE SITUATION OF CHILDREN AND WOMEN 33