Private household concepts and their operationalisation in national and international social surveys

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Abstract: "Different cultures and states use their national definition of 'private household'. In the EU nearly each country has an own definition of household. These definitions correspond to the cultural and national structures of social life. The differences result in diverse household compositions and unequal sizes across European nations. Comparing household measures over countries survey analysts face several inconveniences. The composition of the surveyed household has direct impact on the respondents answer about the household size. With regard to the sociological variables 'total household income' and 'socio economic status' of the individual household members, the composition of the household and, therefore, the definition by means of which this composition is determined, is of central importance. In a first step we summarize definitions of household used in national surveys across Europe. Same dwelling, sharing economic resources, common housekeeping and family ties are the main a