Eurosystem Survey data (HFCS)

The Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) is a harmonized sample survey on euro-area households' wealth, income and consumption carried out by the national central banks.

The Italian data are from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth and have been suitably harmonized (e.g. incomes are reported as gross values, including taxes and social security contributions).

The national central banks have followed a methodology that is as homogenous as possible and used harmonized definitions to gather data on households' balance sheets, both stocks and flows, with special focus on the wealth components.

The reference period of the first wave of the survey was 2010 and the total sample amounted to about 62,000 households. The reference period of the second wave was 2014 and the total sample amounted to more than 84,000 households. The reference period of the third wave was 2017 and the total sample amounted to more than 91,000 households. The reference period of the fourth wave was 2021 and the total sample amounted to more than 83,000 households.

The full documentation is available on the project website. The microdata, in anonymous form, are available on request to researchers for academic and research purposes. Access to the data can be requested through the ECB website.

The microdata for Italy and the documentation are available here.

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