Methodology and Quality Update

Latest Update on Methodology and Quality

 2025/01/30

Statistical Presentation

Data description

Housing Survey presents data on housing and household characteristics in Saudi Arabia.
Housing Survey is a survey conducted to collect data on the main characteristics as follows.
•    Providing statistics on housing and households in the administrative regions of Saudi Arabia.
•    Studying the impact of housing characteristics and the surrounding environment.
•    Establishing a database on housing to fulfil the requirements of Saudi Arabia and the needs of planners and researchers by providing basic data about the characteristics of housing necessary for development plans.
•    Providing statistics and indicators on housing regularly to measure changes in housing characteristics over time, and conducting local, regional, and international comparisons.
•    Measuring developments and growth in the housing sector in terms of building type, housing type, and the age of the housing occupied by the household.
Data is also used to estimates:
•    Estimating housing occupied by households based on several variables.
•    Estimating households.

Classification system

The following classifications are applied in the Housing Survey.
Classification of housing according to their types: (Traditional house, villa, floor, apartment, or other types of housing).
Classification of housing according to ownership type: (owned, rented, provided by the employer, or other types of housing tenure).
Classification of housing according to building material: (reinforced concrete, block/bricks, clay, stone, or any other building material).
National Code of Countries and Nationalities (3166 ISO – codes Country):
A statistical classification based on the international standard  (ISO 3166_Country codes), which is a standard issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO of the UN), and this classification gives numeric and literal codes for the world’s (248) countries, based on the classification of countries.  
The classification is used in the housing survey to classify Saudi or non-Saudi individuals.
Metadata are collected through interviews, so that outputs can be produces in accordance with all relevant classifications.
The classifications are available on the GASTAT’s website: www.stats.gov.sa

Sector coverage

The Housing Survey covers the housing sector.

Statistical concepts and definitions

Terms and concepts for the Housing Survey:
•    Administrative region:
It is part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia overseen by a government entity directly affiliated with the Ministry of Interior, such as Riyadh Region and Makkah Region. Each administrative region has a capital city.
•    Building: 
It is any self-contained structure that is permanently or temporarily fixed to the ground, consisting of one or more rooms, and has one or multiple entrances providing access to all its contents. The building may serve economic, social, or religious purposes, such as an apartment building, a traditional house, a villa, a mosque, a tent, a shack, a school, or a hospital.
•    Dwelling: 
It is a building or part of a building originally intended for the housing of one or more households, with a separate entrance. Whether it is occupied by one or more households or vacant at the time of the survey, it may contain one or more establishments, and it is possible to have both a household and an establishment in the same unit. The housing may consist of one or more rooms, and the types of housing are:
  A building originally constructed for the use of a household, such as a villa or a traditional house.
   Part of a building, such as an apartment, floor, or independent room (such as a room constructed above the roofs of buildings).
  A mobile building such as a tent, hut, Bedouin tent, or shed.
   Occupied building during the census with a household but originally not intended for residence, such as a shop, factory, school, workshop, bakery, restaurant, and many workplaces where workers live.
•    Household: 
It is an individual or a group of individuals, whether related or not, who share a residence and meals and live in the same dwelling at the time of the survey. It does not include individuals living in public housing or labor camps.
•    Head of the household:
He is the person considered by the family as its head among the family members residing with them, and he is usually responsible for the family's livelihood. He is typically at least 15 years old. If the family consists of children and their mother, and a relative who is responsible for their affairs but does not live with them, then this relative is not considered the head of the household. In this case, the mother is considered the head of the household. 
•    Nationality:
It is the legal dependence of an individual to a particular country he represents and is named after and is usually determined by the passport held by the individual or to which he is entitled, and the nationality is written in detail.
•    Dwelling occupied by a Saudi family:
It is a dwelling occupied by a Saudi head of household, either as an individual or with others living with them.
•    Dwelling occupied by a non-Saudi family:
It is a dwelling occupied by a non-Saudi head of household, either as an individual or with others living with them.
•    Tenure Type:
Dwellings inhabited by households during the field researcher’s visit at the time of the survey are classified as (owned - rented - provided by employer - other).
•    Garden:
It is an area designated for home gardening. Areas cultivated for the purpose of selling their produce are not considered home gardens.
•    Swimming pool:
It is any permanent swimming pool within the walls of the house. Pools used for rental purposes are not considered residential swimming pools.
•     Private entrance:
   An entrance designated for the unit owner's entry into a building only, not a shared entrance or a main entrance to the building.

Statistical unit

The statistical unit in the Housing Survey is the dwelling.

Statistical population

The statistical community targeted in housing statistics consisted of all individuals within households (Saudi and non-Saudi) who are habitually resident in Saudi Arabia

Reference area

The Housing Survey covers housing occupied by households in 13 administrative regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Time coverage

​Data is available from the year 2017 to 2024.

Base period

The base year used is 2022.

Unit of measure

•    Absolute numbers such as: (Number of dwellings occupied by households).
•    Percentages such as: (Percentage of occupied and owned dwellings).
•    Average household size, such as: (Average size of Saudi households).

Reference period

References period to the variables or dataset as following:
The data on the number of household members and their demographic characteristics are based on the date of contact with the household and the interview of its members during the data collection period.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality - policy

According to the Royal Decree No. 23 dated 07-12-1397, data must always be kept confidential and must be used by GASTAT only for statistical purposes.
Therefore, the data are protected in the data servers of the Authority

Confidentiality - data treatment

Data of SMEs survey are presented in right tables in order to summarize, understand, as well as extract their results. Moreover, to compare them with other data, and to obtain statistical significance about the selected study population. However, referring to such data indicated in tables is much easier than going back to check the original questionnaire that may include some data like names and addresses of individuals, and names of data providers, which violates data confidentiality of statistical data.
“Anonymity of data” is one of the most important procedures. To keep data confidential,
GASTAT removed information on individual persons, households, or business entities such a way that the respondent cannot be identified either directly such as: (Names, addresses, contact numbers, or identification numbers. etc.) or indirectly (by combining different - especially rare - characteristics of respondents: (age, occupation, education etc.).

Release policy

Release calendar

Housing Survey has been included in the statistical calendar.

Release calendar access

The release calendar is available at: https://www.stats.gov.sa/statistical-calendar-releases 

User access

One of GASTAT’s objectives is to better meet its clients' needs, so it immediately provides them with the publication's results once the Housing Survey Publication is published.
It also receives questions and inquiries of the clients about the Publication and its results through various communication channels, such as:
•    GASTAT official website:  www.stats.gov.sa
•    GASTAT official e-mail address: info@stats.gov.sa
•    Client support e-mail: info@stats.gov.sa
•    Official visits to GASTAT’s official head office in Riyadh or one of its branches in Saudi Arabia.
•    Official letters.
•    Statistical telephone: (199009).

Frequency of dissemination

Every three years.

Accessibility and clarity

News release

The announcements of each publication are available on release calendar as mentioned in 7.2. Release calendar access. The news release can be viewed on the website of GASTAT through the following link:
https://www.stats.gov.sa/en/news

 Publications

GASTAT issues the Housing Survey publications and reports regularly within a pre-prepared dissemination plan and is published on GASTAT’s website. GASTAT is keen to publish its publications in a way that serves all users of different types, including publications in different formats that contain (publication tables, data graphs, indicators, metadata, methodology, and questionnaires) in both English and Arabic.
The results of the Housing Survey are available at:
https://www.stats.gov.sa/statistics

On-line database

Not available

Micro-data access

Microdata are unit-level datasets derived from surveys, censuses, and administrative records. These datasets provide detailed insights into individuals, households, businesses, and geographic areas, supporting the development of statistical indicators and in-depth research.
The different types of microdata files to meet different information needs:
•    Public use:
It consists sets of records containing information on individual persons, households, or business entities anonymized in such a way that the respondent cannot be identified either directly (by name, address, contact number, identity number etc.) or indirectly (by combining different - especially rare - characteristics of respondents: age, occupation, education etc.).
•    Scientific use:
These files established based on specific methodology asked by data requester to extract the datasets with specific characteristics used for strategic studies and decision making as well scientific research purposes on individuals, households and enterprises with no direct identifiers, which have been subject to control methods to protect confidentiality.
Access to Scientific Use Files (SUF) is restricted to authorized researchers who comply with ethical and confidentiality standards. Representative samples of SUF can be obtained through GASTAT's secure platform, "Etaha," while more sensitive datasets are accessible only through secure physical lab environments managed by GASTAT.

Other

Not available

Documentation on methodology

Housing Survey Framework:
Concepts, definitions, issues and classifications are based on the standards and methods adopted by the Statistical Commission on Population and Housing issued by the United Nations Statistics Division.
Methodology Housing

Quality documentation

Quality documentation covers

documentation on methods and standards for assessing, measuring, and monitoring the quality of statistical process and output. It is based on standard quality criteria such as relevance, accuracy and reliability, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability, and coherence.

Quality management

 Quality assurance

GASTAT declares that it considers the following principles: impartiality, user orientated, quality of processes and output, effectiveness of statistical processes, reducing the workload for respondents. 
Quality controls and validation of data are actions carried out throughout the process in different stages such as the data input and data collection and other final controls.

Quality assessment

GASTAT performs all statistical activities according to a national model (Generic Statistical Business Process Model – GSBPM). According to the GSBPM, the final phase of statistical activities is overall evaluation using information gathered in each phase or sub-process. This information is used to prepare the evaluation report which outlines all the quality issues related to the specific statistical activity and serves as input for improvement actions.

Relevance

User needs

Internal users in the GASTAT for the Housing Survey data:
•    Statistics of living conditions, income, and expenditure.
•    Environment and energy.
•    Population, gender, and diversity.
Some several external users and beneficiaries who greatly rely on Housing Survey data, including:
•    Government entities: Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, Housing Program. 
•    Regional and international organizations.
•    Research institutions.
•    Media.
•    Individuals.
The disseminated key variables used by external users:.

User satisfaction

Not available.

Completeness

The data of the Housing Survey is based on data issued by the survey and integrated data issued by administrative records such as the Ejar platform and others, and the data is complete.

Accuracy and reliability

 Overall accuracy

•    The data collected is improved through the researchers, that have been selected according to a set of practical and objective criteria and training program related to the field of work.
•    Alert, prevention, and correction rules are applied during the data collection process on the electronic questionnaire for the Housing Survey to improve data quality.
•    Data is checked with previous years to identify any significant changes in the data.
•    The internal consistency of the data is checked before it is finalized.
•    The links between variables are checked and coherence between different data series is confirmed.

Timeliness and punctuality
Timeliness

The General Authority for Statistics is committed to applying internationally recognized standards in announcing and clarifying the publication time of statistics on the official website through the statistical calendar. In case of any delay, it will be updated accordingly.

Punctuality

The publication takes place according to the published release dates on the statistical calendar for energy price statistics on the website of the General Authority for Statistics.

Coherence and comparability

 Comparability - geographical

Data is fully geographically comparable.

Comparability - over time

The survey began in 2017 as a separate annual survey at the request of the relevant authorities. In 2024, the survey frequency was changed to every 3 years. The following are the main changes that have occurred in recent years:
•    2017:
The first survey was carried out with a previous inclusion in demographic surveys.
•    2018:
The second survey was conducted with the development of the form. 
•    2019:
Many housing-related indicators were added, such as self-built housing and benefits from government support. 
•    2020:
It was not implemented due to the census.
•    2022:
Housing Survey indicators were included in the Saudi Census 2022.
•    2024:
The survey form was developed and adapted with the relevant authorities to know their requirements.  

Coherence- cross domain

Not applicable. 

Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics

Not applicable. 

Coherence- National Accounts

Not applicable. 

Coherence - internal

Housing Survey estimates have full internal coherence, as they are all based on the same corpus of microdata, and they are calculated using the same estimation methods.

 Used Resources

Data revision

Data revision - policy

Not applicable, only final results will be published.

data revision- practice

Not applicable, only final results will be published.

Statistical processing

Source data

The publication relies on data collected through the Housing Survey conducted by the General Authority for Statistics.
The main variables published for the Housing Survey data are:
•    Household. Such as: (Number and size of households).
•    Housing type. Such as: (Villa, apartment.)
•    Tenure Type. Such as: (Owned, rented)
•    The numerical distribution of dwellings across administrative regions. Such as: (Number of dwellings in Riyadh region)
•    The approximate age of the dwelling. Such as: (Number of dwellings aged between 10-19 years).
•    The area of the dwelling.
•    The number of rooms and bedrooms.
•    Dwellings according to service sources. Such as: (Source of electricity).

Frequency of data collection 

Every three years.

 Data collection

Data collection from the survey:
Housing survey data is collected through computer-assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI).

Data validation

Data are reviewed and matched to ensure their accuracy and precision in a way that suits their nature with the aim of giving the presented statistics quality and accuracy. 
The data of the current year publication are compared with the data of the previous year to ensure their integrity and consistency in preparation for processing data and extracting and reviewing results.
In addition to the data processing and tabulation to check their accuracy, all the outputs are stored and uploaded to the database after being calculated by GASTAT to be reviewed and processed by specialists in Environment, Agriculture, and Energy Statistics Department through modern technologies and software designed for this purpose.

Data compilation

Data Coding:
Interviewers in the Housing Survey collect from respondents, a detailed description of each field. This information is then coded in-house by an automated process, which is reviewed by a small-dedicated team of coding experts using a series of consistency checks.
Data editing:
Specialists of population, gender, and diversity statistics department have processed and analyzed data in this stage, and this step was based on the following measures:
•    Sorting and arranging data in groups or different categories in a serial order.
•    Summarizing detailed data into key points or data.
•    Combining many data segments and ensuring their interconnection.
•    Processing incomplete or missing data.
•    Processing illogical data.
•    Converting data into statistically significant data.
•    Arranging, presenting, and interpreting data.
Compensation (for non-response cases or incomplete datasets): 
•    The logic of field data and its referral to the researcher for a visit again,
•    Limiting data at the level of the areas of supervision and guidance by correcting the data on the field by repeating the visit.
•    No compensation shall be paid to families who have moved and those in their custody.
•    Use statistical criteria to measure loss such as measures of centralization, dispersion measures, and time series.
Extrapolation and weighting: 
After processing the data collected from respondents, survey weights were generated to produce indicator tables by following two main steps in creating survey weights: 
•    Adjustment of non-response.
•    Calibration weight
Applied statistical estimation:
GASTAT has relied on the formulas approved by the international standards in calculating the key indicators for the Housing Survey., as follows:
•    Household size = Number of individuals in households / Number of households.
•    The percentage of owned dwellings occupied by households = Number of owned dwellings occupied by households / Total number of dwellings occupied by households.
•    The percentage of rented dwellings occupied by households = Number of rented dwellings occupied by households / Total number of dwellings occupied by households.

Adjustment

Not applicable, only final results will be published.