Household Income and Wealth

The Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) was begun in the 1960s to gather data on the incomes and savings of Italian households. Over the years, the survey has grown in scope and now includes wealth and other aspects of households' economic and financial behaviour, including, for instance, the payment methods employed.

The sample used in the most recent surveys comprises about 7,000 households (16,000 individuals), distributed over about 300 Italian municipalities.

The survey results are published regularly in the Bank of Italy's Statistic series - Survey on Household Income and Wealth. The data on households is freely available, in anonymous form, for further processing and research.

Additional material on the Survey is available on the Bank of Italy’s website. It includes a description of the Historical Archives and the variables they contain, as well as information on the panel component of the sample and the questionnaires used in each edition of the Survey. An Excel file with the time series for a large set of economic indicators is available in the section Survey results. Data on the main economic indicators are also available to the Statistical Database (BDS).

Data from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth are also distributed as part of harmonized international datasets. Since 2010, the survey has provided the data for Italy for the Eurosystem's Household Finance and Consumption Survey, coordinated by the European Central Bank. Furthermore, for a number of years the Bank of Italy has been taking part in projects for the harmonization of income and wealth data (Luxembourg Income Study and Luxembourg Wealth Study).

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Survey (1965-2015), the microdata coverage in the Historical Archives has been extended and new material on past editions of the Survey (1965-1975), for which no microdata exist, has been made available to the public.